Dear Helen,
Thank you so much for your letter. I have not lived
with my mom and dad for over 20 years, so I don't know
all that I wish I could know.

My mother told me that the doctors knew of his
hallucinations but never made much of it, in fact they
joked about it? It never seemed to be a big problem.
Dad would have trouble sleeping at night and go out to
the garage to work on things, wood projects I guess.
He would hear voices, people would talk to him, he
called them his friends. Then they started critizeing
him, putting him down, rediculing him!

My dad has had Parkinson's (had) since 1987-1988 time
frame! He started having Dementia about 6 years ago,
would think people were in the house or standing
outside looking in, from the second story! kind of
hard to do!

His last day on this earth was the worst. He was not
only hearing voices but he was carrying on full
conversations with these people and acting as if my
mom was not even there! He told my mom at one point in
the day that the floor was sinking and sand was coming
up!, then he proceded to try and pull out imaginary
stick pins from the same rug. At one point in the day
he went into the hallway and rolled up into a little
fetal like ball, that is when my mom thought of taking
him to the hospital. Instead she chose to do like the
other times and wait till tomorrow! tomorrow came with
a knife in the chest!

My dad had been sleeping with a neck brace on now and
I suppose you know why he was doing that? My mom said
that if he had intended to end his life he would not
have put on his neck brace!

I can not understand how a man who did not have the
manual dexterity to button his own shirt, could do
such a thing, unless he was hallucinating so bad that
he became a different person so to speak?

My dad's Neurologist is suppose to be one of the best
in the USA, so if that be the case? then maybe there
is something for this man to learn here! Maybe he
won't let another one of his patients die such a
horrible death? maybe he will take hallucinations a
little more seriously? lots of maybes!

Best of luck to you and thanks again!
Johanna Thompson
Ontario, California, USA
--- Helen Coleman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Johanna - my heart goes out to you.   What a
> heartbreaking and unnessary
> tradgy.  First of all, your father must have
> suffered in his mind so much.
>        Back in the early to mid 60's my
> mother-in-law suffered so much with
> PD.  That was before Sinemet and before there was
> much information about
> Parkinson's.  I'm afraid Parkinson's was just a word
> to  those of us close to
> her - we did not understand what she was going
> though.  When she became worse
> her doctor's who didn't seem much more informed than
> we were put her on some
> medication (I don't recall what) she had terrible
> hallucations just like your
> father.  When we talked to the Dr. about what hell
> she was in his comment was
> it was either that or she could shake herself to
> death.  She would sit and
> before long she was soaking wet from all the sweat
> caused by her shaking.
>        It gets worse.  She started not to trust
> anyone, especially her
> family.  And most regretably she became terrified of
> my husband who had
> always been the one she depended on most, and
> myself.  To make matters worse
> it caused her so much pain when we came to see her
> we could no longer see
> her.  More than once we found out she had fallen
> early in the day and when
> the son that lived with her came home she would be
> in a puddle of her own
> sweat and there was nothing we could do about it.
> After much trying to
> convince the family  she would be better off in a
> nursing home and after
> calling countless nursing homes who all said their
> waiting list was many
> months long, I finally convinced a fine place for
> her only a few blocks from
> our home to take her and we, and by this time most
> of the family were so
> thankful for their compasion.  The doctor at the
> home took her off the
> medication and I don't know what they did except
> make her feel safe and cared
> for but the rest of her days she was no longer
> fearful.
>        I now have pd myself and know a little of
> what she went through and
> none of us understood or knew what to do for her.  I
> still think of the
> uncaring Dr. who let her life be hell and let her
> suffer so much from h----.
> I don't know what she would have done if we had not
> gotten her away from him.
>  Because of her insurance at the time, that was the
> only approved Dr. she
> could see.
>        Did your father's doctor know about his
> problems with his medication?
> Did they care?  My heart breaks for you and your
> Mother and family because I
> believe it was such a cruel and unnessary death.
>        May God give you peace.      h
>
>
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