Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forum here and am trying to seek some information about my father. He is 58 years old and was diagnosed with Parkinson's about 4 years ago. Not really sure where to start here and I'm try not to make this an excessively wordy post.

He's been to a couple different doctors in the area to get different opinions, both of which have a connection to each other. Originally he was diagnosed with Parkinson's based on his slow movements and small writing. In both scenarios the doctors/neurologists staff gave a visual inspection, spoke with the doctor/neurologist and an opinion was gathered from there. He was then given dopamine, but this is where things kind of took a turn per say. Once he started taking the drug, side effects started to show up which would mimic someone having Parkinson's. He began to have twitches, even slower movements, seizing up/unable to move, tremors, and worsening in posture. Beyond that, his mood also changed very very drastically as well.

Now just a bit of background here. He did have a very stiff back previously to this diagnosis, he does work construction and had hurt his back during sometime in his career field. He was going to a chiropractor very often as well. He's seen multiple chiropractors over the last decade, I would safe probably five different ones. One of the last ones he went to, he was having appointments 2-3 times a week, near the end of seeing that one particular chiropractor his left shoulder would drop lower than his right for a short period after his appointment and he would also drag his left foot. He also attended physiotherapy a little while afterwards for about a year which didn't seem to help at all either. But the issue with physiotherapy therapy was that he didn't preform any exercises after the classes which he was suppose to.

Going back after the time he was diagnosed with Parkinson's, there was a time where he was worse which would have been around the period where he was still new into taking the dopamine. Currently he is much better than he was, yet still doesn't show the signs of Parkinson's besides the slow movements, yet when he ups his dosage on dopamine, that's when those other side effects start to pop up such as extreme stiffness, twitches, etc. I also forgot to mention earlier, which regards to his small writing, he's gone this every since I could remember. Even when I was a child and he wrote in notes to the teachers, the teachers had a hard time reading his writing because it was so small (that was over 20yrs ago). I've known people with Parkinson's over the years and both our current neighbours have Parkinson's as well.

Now unfortunately my father doesn't have much of an active life so I would assume that doesn't help out his situation that much. I know it's been a known fact that people who have been busy all their lives in their career, not having a desk job, well that can be hard on one's system. He doesn't have really any hobbies either which probably doesn't help his mindset either. Most of the time he will sleep for 12hrs a night, then take a couple one hour naps during the day. It's not that he's tired, it's more just to pass the day by. The rest of the day he'll sit in his chair and watch television. I know there's quite a few things that have bothered him over the years as well, so I'm not sure if it's somewhat added up of the years and now he's in this state now. More serious issues in life such as retirement, the house, me not being able to get work in my field, etc. I've read up on dopamine and have noticed it has side effects on moods too. Probably one of the biggest issues with him currently is his excessive mood swings. He's not depressed per say, just really miserable, stubborn, and unreasonable. Another thing which I've noticed as well that I never mentioned earlier was he's been having severe anxiety after taking dopamine. Both my mother and I have also been trying to get him out going for walks, excising, going swimming, sauna, and he doesn't have an interest whatsoever. Everything that I've spoken about here, we've brought up with my father. He won't take anything into consideration at all. It's really hard for us...

I do apologize if I have gone around in a circle in a couple places. There's just so much information I'd like to be put out to make sure someone gets a grasp of the situation. Within the last 6 months it's all been incredibly hard both on both my mother and I. Any input is greatly appreciate and thank you for your time in advance.