 |
 |
Hi Everyone, I am a new subscriber to this list and so please excuse me if the questions I ask have been answered before. After approximately 6 years of gradual deterioration, my father was diagnosed with PD 3 weeks ago. In looking back the family had been observing the symptoms for at least 5 years but, with no history of PD in the family, were ignorant of the cause and had put the deterioration down to old age. (my father is 90 years old) After doing some research on the Internet I have found some excellent information and am now familiar enough with the disease to, at least, start asking the right questions and being able to understand the answers. During the 6 years or so that my dad has had PD he has seen at least 3 different Doctors and none of them diagnosed the problem and so I have become a bit wary of the medical profession. Perhaps the lack of diagnosis was due to the fact that my dad is in the 25% or so of PWP who do not exhibit tremors. He was correctly diagnosed when he was admitted to hospital and has commenced taking Sinemet. Even though he is still on a low dosage the improvement in a week has been quite remarkable and his voice is louder, he is walking much better and can straighten up properly. The medical staff at the hospital believe that they will be able to establish the correct dosage within the next two weeks and he will be able to go home and lead a reasonably normal life (considering his age of course) There are a couple of symptoms that he has, however, and I am unclear whether they relate to the PD or to something else. The first one is that, prior to him being diagnosed with PD, my dad had what could only be described as "Off' days where he seemed to lose control of most of the muscles in his body. I have read about PD patients having such "Off" days but it is not clear to me whether this is a symptom of the PD or of the medication used to treat PD. Clearly if it is a symptom of the medication only then his 'Off' days prior to him commencing medication must have been caused by something else (Possibly a TIA) The second symptom, which I have found one reference to, is that of a skin rash which was associated with his 'Off' days. The skin rash, which covered a fair percentage of his body, disappeared after about 24 hours but was very irritating while he had it. If this also a symptom of the disease? I am trying to understand as much as I can about the disease and so would appreciate someone either answering the questions directly or pointing me to a suitable reference source. TIA Roger