Hi Teresa -- My dad had a tremor in left hand/arm that became more pronounced (he had had a slight tremor in his jaw as well), so his GP sent him to a neurologist. He started to have balance issues and had to give up his beloved Chuck Taylor high-tops (at 88!) for sturdier shoes. His symptoms progressed fairly slowly. He began taking carbidopa/levodopa, but unfortunately he had a terrible neurologist who was not good at monitoring and following up on medication dosages. At one point he was so over-medicated that in a period of two weeks he became unable to walk and was experiencing strong hallucinations. I promptly got him to a different doctor who greatly reduced the c/l and my dad became himself again. It was a horrible experience.

My dad needed to move to assisted living at that point. A year ago I moved him to Texas to be near me, and he is doing pretty well but his speech is very mushy (in spite of speech therapy), his manual dexterity is very poor, and he spends part of the time in his wheelchair, using a walker the rest of the time.. We got a Parkinson's specialist in Houston and she has worked very hard to get a good dosage of c/l for him, trying different amounts and working on the optimum spacing between doses. He takes a mix of instant release and continuous release c/l, and a 4mg Neupro patch. He also gets physical and occupational therapy for periods when needed.

One of his biggest challenges has been anxiety, a major symptom of Parkinson's that is overlooked and minimized since it isn't a visible physical symptom. It is managed with lorazepam (Ativan). Managing all of the medications that a 94-year-old takes is challenging!

Thanks for your interest!

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