Hi everyone,
 
My name is Debra, I am from Edmonton, Alberta. My mother-in-law has PD, she
is 54 years old. She was dx approximately 3 years ago. She has
deteriorated very fast since then. She is almost wheelchair bound. She
needs 24 hour care. She cannot talk anymore. A couple of months ago you
were able to understand her sometimes, expecially first thing in the morning
when she was perky, but now you cannot understand her at all. She does have
a little sharp memory typewritter and that's how she converses. We would
all be lost without it. Before she got sick she was a very mobile women. In
her 50's she could run circles around me. She worked, took care of her
husband (my husband's dad) and her severly handicapped son. I think
sometimes she still thinks she's doing all that only its everyone else doing
it. What bothers my husband and I sometimes is her behavior. For example,
this spring she wanted a huge garden, she had one previous years. We told
her we'll do half the garden. She typed to us "It's my Damn garden." We
felt like saying then go out there and plant it yourself. We are the one's
to do all the work. Alot of people said thats ridiculous, she shouldn't
have no garden at all, but we couldn't do that to her. We do have our own
home though and two children. My father-in-law is recovering from 3 brain
operations, he had a blood clot on his brain. He was the one before that
took care of her and their son. He cannot do it now until he gets stronger.
My husband and I moved in to take care of Doreen while dad was in the
hospital. She did alot of things for herself, now that dads home, she plays
the duck! She acts like she can't do anything, although my husband believe
the disease is getting worst. We have homecare comming into the house for
her and dad in two 6 hour shifts. The night shift until 10:00 pm to help
Doreen get ready and into bed as Dad cannot do it right now. It makes her
mad sometimes that she has to go to bed. She cried to me one night when we
were over that she has no choice, I told her "No you don't, its to bad, its
the diesease, dad cannot help you to bed right now, you'll both fall, and
mom, we bend over backwards to try and do everything else you want. It's
just hard sometimes with her and when something doesn't go her way - she
starts crying. We feel guilty. She's a very kind hearted woman, we love
her very much. This is a terrible disease. People want to put her in a
home, we say NO WAY. That would definitley kill her.
 
She is not eating well anymore. She's loosing lots of weight. In 3 or 4
hours she might have a couple of bites of food. She now has to go on a
feeding tube. She is very upset and depressed about that. Has anyone out
there dealt with this issue yet. She went for blood test last week to make
sure everything is normal to get the tube put in. She said to my husband
"Hurry up and get it before I change my mind." They say she is not getting
the full benifit of her medication because it is melting in her mouth. She
takes Siment and permex. Excuse my spelling.
 
I would appricate any feedback anyone has to this issue of tube feeding. I
have been reading some of the logs to try and find information, but its
taking me forever to get through the logs.
 
 
Take care
Debra
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