Help my mother live in dignity with Parkinson's Disease

Mum’s feeling rather put upon at the moment – dad is being very selfish and self centered (as usual).

Earlier today he asked her to put something on her knee so they could both look at it but her knees were jiggling up and down (it’s the meds – she has the rigid form of Parkinson’s not the more common shaking form). Dad then started telling her she had to keep her knees still otherwise he couldn’t read it. Honestly! He knows she can’t do anything about it but would love to more than anything.

I called mum earlier this evening to tell her about a lovely sounding spa day deal close to where she lives that I thought she’d like the sound of. Before I could tell her about it she was moaning that she’s always at the bottom of people’s priority order and feels fed up (told me the story above).

Once she heard about the spa day (it’s a 2 for 1 day valid for 6 months and I’ll go with her) she perked up no end and said she had something really lovely to look forward to now.

I think she has other things to think about and look forward to but tomorrow her elder sister goes into an Alzheimer’s care home for a trial month. This has really brought her down and is in her immediate thoughts tonight.

This deal came at just the right time to cheer her up. :)

Wish I had the time and energy to help her more.

This is the proof needed that her symptoms although looking like Parkinson’s Disease really are.

So far she’s not fallen over, been able to step backwards without freezing, her writing has become larger and she’s not doing everything in slow motion (not up to full speed yet but it’s all progress).

This is faster than I hoped to see improvements. I look forward to seeing what else happens with these L-Dopa tablets.

I went to the hospital with Mum for her first appointment for her falling and balance problems and she has a vast number of the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease in their classic form. Not sure how long she’s had it (possibly a few years) but her daily life is now being affected by this (she loses her balance 15-20 times per day but doesn’t always fall to the ground).

She started the L-dopa medication today and we’ll find out in a couple of weeks how well she’s doing with it. We should hopefully see some improvement quickly and then we’ll take it from there.

Something surprising that I didn’t know was that 30% of people with Parkinson’s Disease don’t ever get the tremors – if she’d had tremors I think that we’d have sought treatment earlier. Every symptom she has we have managed to attribute to some event or other cause – the falling/shuffling gait/stooped posture we put down to her being very tired caring full time for my father (who had a major stroke).