Parkinson’s unresponsive episodes. Is someone investigating this?

Hello @barbaralou,

I can understand your frustration in your husband not wanting you to go with him to his appointment. The feedback that you can offer the doctor would undoubtedly help the doctor (and your husband) to find some new medication and/or therapies to help with these symptoms.

As you are dealing with some very uncomfortable symptoms that are affecting both of you, and that are related to his PD, have you considered phoning the doctor's office in advance of his appointment and letting the doctor know of these symptoms? You might also consider sending the doctor a message through the patient portal.

As you've said, you will be his caregiver for the long haul, so it is probably important that you find a way to let your husband as well as his medical team know what is going on.

I look forward to hearing from you with an update as it is convenient.

A BLUE nose?

Is nose actually turned a blue color.

Wow, never have heard that before. Did you do an Autopsy ?

I found this thread because my father is also experiencing these absent states. He is 90 Years old, advanced Parkinsons, on palliative care. I am not too bothered by the episodes as his cognitive abilities have been declining and this is just another thing to add to the list. His episodes can last up to 6 hours, which seems a bit longer than other posts.

His neurologist told us a few years ago that he could not do anything more for my father and that there was no need to make any further appointments. We should just try to keep him as comfortable as possible. So, I don't have anyone with the expertise to tell me what is going on. I was hoping to get some insight here.

Hello @zaddo and welcome to the Parkinson's support group on Mayo Connect.
I am sorry to hear about your dad's advanced Parkinson's and absence episodes. On Connect, we are just patients who support and encourage each other and not medical professionals.

Until another PD caregiver can respond to your question, I thought that these blog post/videos from The Davis Phinney Foundation might be helpful to you. There are a series of videos that talk about the different aspects of advanced PD. Here is the link,
https://davisphinneyfoundation.org/resources/parkinsons-care-partner-resources/my-person-is-in-advanced-stages/
How long ago was your dad diagnosed with PD and when did the absence episodes start?

Hello all.
My husband is only 64 and developed Parkinson’s in 2020.
His symptoms are quite mild but getting slowly worse lately and just this evening we had a first!
Very scary he started suddenly talking mumbo jumbo mostly incoherent and was unresponsive .
He also could barely walk to the bed where I helped him and gave him his sleeping pill.
A few moments later he was himself again!
Very scary!

Hello @donyaki2025 and welcome to the Parkinson's support group on Mayo Connect, I can understand your concern about your husband's non-responsive episodes.

I would encourage you to mention the non-responsive episodes with your husband's neurologist either by a phone call or a message through the patient portal.

You mentioned that his symptoms are quite mild. Could you explain a bit about the symptoms that led to his PD diagnosis?

Thank you for your reply and interest.

It started in 2020 when the top of his right hand had a ‘twitch’ for lack of a better word, constantly. From there his right hand hand and arm, and very very little the right leg also began to tremor.

A friend of his had a famed doctor from the New York PRespetarian come into Doha as his aging father had quite advanced PD; and he kindly insisted he take a look at my husband also. This is when we had the first confirmation.

We have since been to Mayo Clinic and his Doctor was Dr. J Eric Ahlskog who prescribed Carba Dopa Leva Dopa.

Obviously we can not constantly fly in to America, so his local doctor has taken over. For sleep, he takes Stillnox.

His symptoms I would describe as Mild. He has the tremor, it has progressed slightly now where when he concentrates I noticed the side of his mouth doing a little twitch;- his mood swings are mild but frequent, and he does mumble a lot. When walking it looks like he has a slight limp. All his symptoms are on the right side, which is a massive blessing as he is left handed.
He is a lawyer and still goes to work and court and does drive himself.

This episode only lasted about 2-3 minutes, and when i asked him the next day, he said he remembers speaking with me but then falling asleep…….veyr scary indeed.

As a note my husband is only 62!!!

Also his brother who is 4 years older has advanced Parkinson’s (and recently had a device fitted);- but as far as we know they are the only two in the family who have ever had it.