Hi there,
My Dad has had parkinsons for 30 years now and is aged 72. He is now in a nursing home and has been for a couple of months since the residential home he was in for 7 years gave us notice to move as they could no longer meet his needs. He has also been diagnosed with the parkinsons related dementia and has had DBS 12 years ago. His main meds are one dispersible 62.5mg madopar and one 62.5mg madopar capsule six times a day ( down from 9 a day about six months ago as we were trying to lessen his confusion but this didnt work ) also takes rivastigmine 4.5mg twice a day. He is very confused at times these days. Also has apraxia of the eyelids now where he physically cannot open his eyes. This sometimes gets mistook for him being tired though very difficult to distinguish between the two.
One of the main reasons the home gave us notice is that they could no longer manage him when he 'put himself on the floor'. Now this is not a fall, it is a controlled movement where he lowers himself to the floor and lies down. He often becomes unresponsive whilst on the floor. The residential home called out the in reach team who were not familiar with this either and advised the home to make him safe and comfortable whilst he was on the floor. He may lay there for up to two hours at a time, then get up and carry on as if nothing had happened. He does suffer from falls too.
I mentioned this to both his neurologists and both have never heard of this before. Neither has his psychiatrist. I do remember a now retired PD nurse told me that this could happen in the future but didnt give me a reason as to why.
The nursing home dont know why he does this but now instead of leaving him on the floor as the residential home did until he was ready to get up. they immediately get him off the floor into a chair. At which point he just puts himself back onto the floor. He is starting to look really rough these days too.
I have tried asking Dad what is going on. At one point he was telling me that he felt safer on the floor, due to hallucinations the floor was rising up and felt safer to be on it.
What is causing all this ? Is it just advancing parkinsons with the dementia advancing too??
Anyone else come across this?
Thanks for reading.