Hi Moneesha!
My husband Dick went to the hospital last May because suddenly he was anxious, unable to feed himself, and falling and spinning. It happened when my Mother had just been hospitalized for breaking a vertebral body in her back. This took me away from him for many hours a day. I don't know if that had anything to do with this rapid change where he was relatively normal before. The hospital had no neurologist and refused to move him to the hospital next door which had, I am told, a very good Parkinson specialist. The doctors took all his medications away from him including his Carbo/Levodopa and Eldepryl. He was very mentally sick, not knowing anyone except me consistently. All his children came, and sometimes he did not recognize them as his children. Other times, he did. He did not eat for days. He was diagnosed with a psychosis including severe jealousy of me, my friends, and events that I might attend without him. After a couple of weeks, he was released to go
home with me and my children because he kept begging to go home. He was manic and could not stop moving. He was stumbling up and down stairs, walking like a drunk person and was completely different than before he went to the hospital. He had an episode where he thought his son was a man in love with me and threatened him with a knife. We had to call and ambulance. Armed policemen are routinely sent with the ambulance in a situation like this. I asked that they not be sent because Dick was just sitting waiting to be taken to jail. My son had been a policemen and met them, asking them please not to come in with guns, but they did, although they stayed in the background. He spent several days in the hospital, the boys left and my daughter and I were left with him with no instructions of how to handle him except not to be confrontational. He was very upset one night, standing in the bedroom and hallucinating. I put my arms around him and comforted him saying I
would take care of him. all of a sudden, he pulled both fists back at the same time and was going to punch me. He hasn't a mean bone in his body. I backed away quickly, slammed the door and braced it with my feet. I told my daughter to take the dog and get out of the house with the car keys. We drove around and slipped up to the window. He was going through the gun cabinet looking for ammunition, which had been removed. We left for awhile and checked again. He had passed out on the bed completely spent. Then I called the ambulance explaining that he had medicine and was out like a light so not to send armed policemen with the ambulance. My daughter and I waited in the driveway so that they would not barge in if they brought guns. They did. I talked to the officer in charge calmly about not bringing in the guns and letting me go in first. At that point, one of the young cops, who was standing about 8-10 feet from us raised his rifle or shotgun, and pointed it
directly at my head. I said to the man with the gun, " You put that gun down right this minute." (in my very even-toned 'I mean it.' Mother voice. Then I asked the officer in charge to get that young man under control. He did. That night, I decided I would never call 911 again. I know that family situations can be dangerous for officers, but that was ridiculous. This "in and out of the hospital" continued with my fighting with the hospital to keep Dick there. They finally found out he had a UTI causing the hallucinations, but sent him home without any meds and kept changing them almost daily when they did prescribe one. He came home without violent hallucinations. When I asked the psychiatrist if I were going to be safe, she said, "Yes." I have been. Dick still has benign hallucinations from time to time, but he ignores them. He has a wonderful psychiatrist taking it very slowly with his meds and changes. Dick has never been right since he was in the hospital.
It is a roller coaster ride, but we are dealing with it. He still is afraid for me to go anywhere without him, which is difficult as he tires so easily. After about six months, he has stayed with my sister and my helper when I have had to leave for a few hours for business. Two weeks ago, he began letting me go to physical therapy if I had an appointment and he didn't. I have had two partial days when he let me go to lunch and shopping with a friend. I had to quit my job, and we spend most of our time at doctors and physical therapy.
If the dr. ever wants to take your Mumbai off all meds at once, especially the P.D. drugs, don't let them. Talk to one of the old-timers of this group. I think the doctors did real damage to Dick when they did that three years ago and last May.
I don't mean to be a downer for you, but since you are thinking he is over-medicated, I just want you to know how dangerous it might be if some nitwit takes Mumbai off all his medicines at once.
Good luck
Moneesha Sharma <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Hullo Ronald,
Thank you for taking the trouble to respond to my mail. Yes, Mumbai has
always been streets ahead of other cities in India on many things. They
have a Parkinson's Society there as well as several support groups.
However, since we are based in Calcutta it is difficult for us to take
advantage of all this.
With best wishes,
Moneesha
On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 6:13 PM, Priscilla Rodrigues
wrote:
> Hello
> Iam a parkinsons patient for the last 12years Iam 70 years old Ithink the
> medication is a bit too much for him you should see a neurologist specialsed
> in parkinsons Mirtaz is a good tablet for depression Iam surprised that you
> dont have a support group in calcutta
> does he have muscle rigidty or tremors we have very good doctors in
> Mumbai at the Bombay hospital and the HindujaI sugest you take a another
> opnion
> Ronald
> > Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:33:12 +0530> From:
> [log in to unmask]> Subject: I am new to this forum> To:
> [log in to unmask]> > Hullo,> > I have just joined this group.
> I found it by googling for support for> Parkinson's patients and caregivers
> since the city in which we live,> Calcutta, India, has no support groups.> >
> My husband was diagnosed with PD in August 2001, though I think he probably>
> had it for about 18 months before that. Now his doctor says he is in the>
> third stage of the illness. Apart from his motor problems, what has been>
> quite distressing of late is the psychosis that is bedevilling him ->
> hallucinations, delusions and confusion. He is on> > - Syndopa 275 (levodopa
> 250 mg+carbidopa IP 25 mg), 3 tablets a day> - Pramipex 1 (pramipexole
> dihydrochloride monohydrate 1 mg), 3 tablets> a day> - Qutan 50 (quetiapine
> fumarate equivalent to quetiapine 50 mg), 2> tablets a day> - Mirtaz 7.5(mirtazapine), 1 tablet a day> - Modalert 200, 1 tablet a day> > I cannot
> help feeling that he is on too much medication. The Syndopa dosage> has
> remained unchanged since the middle of 2006. The strength of Pramipex> was
> increased from 0.75mg to 1 mg at the end of December. Subsequently the>
> doctor added Mirtaz 7.5 and increased Qutan from 75 mg to 100 mg at the
> end> of January. Hallucinations first made their appearance about a year ago
> and> the dreams have become even more vivid and real. He had the first,
> quite> disturbing, episode of confusion (about whether our house is an
> office in> another city) in June. After this there were one or two other
> similar> episodes. However now hallucinations, dreams and delusions are an
> almost> daily occurrence and the onset has been quite rapid in the last 4-5
> weeks.> The nights are particularly bad, giving him no rest. Today we have
> an> appointment with a psychiatrist, at the suggestion of his neurologist,
> but I> am concerned that he might just add more medication.> > I would
> appreciate advice on this.> Thank you.> Moneesha> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------> To
> sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn
> _________________________________________________________________
> Post free property ads on Yello Classifieds now! www.yello.in
> http://ss1.richmedia.in/recurl.asp?pid=219
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:
> [log in to unmask]
> In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn
---------------------------------
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn
