I am a concerned daughter of a 67-year-old Parkinson's patient.
 
I'm not sure when Dad was first diagnosed with PD, but they (Mom & Dad)
finally shared the diagnosis with my sister and I in November, 1994.
 
I stumbled onto the PARKINSN list while "surfing the net".  I read through a
month of the archives, and felt that this would be an excellent place for me
to pick up ideas, hints, and general encouragement for my mother.
 
Dad has been "fairly good" until very (12/28) recently.  I suspect it was
either overmedication or medication reactions, since the onset of severe,
argumentative dementia was that sudden (and coincided with a change in the
medications).  I'm not sure what he was taking, other than that he was
admitted into the local hospital on 12/31, and has been under the care of
the neurological team.  They've removed all medications (or nearly so), and
are starting to increase the dosages of a few.  It sounds as though he'll be
on "only" 3 medications, instead of 6.
 
I'm doing all of this semi-long distance.  I'm in New Jersey, and the folks
are in central Pennsylvania.  (My sister is also in NJ, but the other end of
the state.)
 
Other tidbits -
Suspected Benign Essential Tremor in paternal Grandmother, although never
diagnosed, nor severe.
No other neurological disorders in the family, that I'm aware of.
 
Dad's Caucasian, blue-eyed, black hair (or at least it was - it's mostly
gray now).  We're of Irish-German descent.  I know that one of his first
symptoms was a tremor in one hand (right, maybe).  Photographs taken in
April, 1992 prompted another acquaintance to ask if Dad had PD, due to the
lack of expression.  The onset of his symptoms seemed to have coincided with
a severe case of pneumonia and Legionnaires Disease (simultaneously).
 
I'll try to get the other info, to pass along for the survey, and I'll post
it in the requested format.
 
Thanks, everybody, for tolerating this lengthy post.  It was reassuring to
read through the archives and learn that this is a place where I'll be able
to pick up information that might be useful.  900+ heads are certainly
better than one!
 
     Diane McHutchison ([log in to unmask])