HELP Need Advice with Mother
 

Quick background, my mother was dx'd when she was 62 and in 3 years time she is in horrible shape. She has to take her meds every 3-4 hours or else they cause terrible stomach pain. She suffers from frequent panic attacks, almost all of which are based on rediculous fears of various stuff. She has a husband who works 60-70 hours/week and has about 35 hours of private in-home care. She can walk short 10-20' distance but usually confined to the wheelchair.

She swears that her husband has started lacing her apple sauce to make her incoherent and so she'll sign things unknowingly. I highly doubt he would do anything like that and I think it is one of her panic attacks. She wants to call the police to test her apple sauce, which im sure they wont. She doesnt want me to call her husband at all to dicuss her overall care and situation, thinking he'll do something drastic. What is there left to do?? I cant bring her to my home to live there is not room and i just got married 1 week ago...

I also could use any advice on how to get her in a retirement home, how to pay for it, etc and so on...

Thanks,
Steve

Do you know what meds she is on - all of them?
I'd check all the meds for interactions or not being taken properly..
Was she prone to panic attacks before the PD dx?

I'm guessing the husband is not your father, but can you talk with him about how he thinks mom is doing?
Or talk with the care nurses, Dr with your concerns.

She could have another condition as well as PD that's complicating things - emotional or otherwise.

Does she call you, or can you see her in person to be able to see how she is doing?

I don't know the law, if she is married I think he would be the one to do the nursing home thing , unless mom signs power of attorney & care to you... but maybe the others know more about the legal side of that.
And they might have other ideas about the situation.

I have a similar response as Jo-Mar. I was also diagnosed three years ago at age 62. The first med I was on, MiraPax, gave me all the side effects you describe, panic attacks, paranoia, bloating, constipation, disorientation, compulsive behavior, etc. Plus I have REM sleep behavior disorder, which became evident when I took that medication. I switched to ReQuip XL, started cycling and all those symptoms disappeared except the REM for which I take another medicine. I would recommend a second opinion from another PD doctor and would certainly think that it wouldn't hurt and might help to change medications.

Your story also emphasizes how different the PD experience is for each patient. Never does one size fit all.

Thanks for the responses so far. I'll post a list of what she takes on a daily basis and try and get feed back. She is such a difficult case because of her exstreme stomache sensitivity which really limits what medications she can take and how much of it. She has seen numerous PD doctors and is seeing one of the citys best at the University of Cincinnati. I have been having talks with him and his staff which are on going.

Before her dx she was definately a giant worry wart but i wouldnt say was prone to any type of anxiety disorder or panic attacks.

I went to see her yesterday and she was in bad shape mentally she really thinks her husband tried to posion her. I sampled the applesauce she claimed had a drug she was alergic to in it and it tasted the same as a freshly opened cup. She didnt believe me. She had a motive all dreamed up for why he would want to do such a thing i had an attorney friend explain to her the law which took away the motive. It took her 20 minutes and she had new motives... Her husband was understanding but obviously stressed and hurt because of the accusations. She even called the cops before i got there and a detective came over but he quickly determine her mental state.

This is so hard...

I am no expert, but have followed a lot of posts over the years. It could be that either the medication regime does not work for her, or she is overmedicated. As she is not that old, it could be one of her medications causing the confusion.
Adjusting meds for optimum benefit is hard, and takes time, and it does not always go smoothly. I would get back to the neuro and discuss this with him as early as possible, and in as much detail.

Best wishes
Lindy

Your mother's behavior brings back really painful memories of the drama that occurred in my home when I was in my early teens, back in the 1950's. My mother, whose Parkinson's had been diagnosed more than a decade earlier, began exhibiting florid paranoid behavior which was totally uncharacteristic of her. This continued off and on for the balance of her life, some twenty-five years.
Needless to say, the home atmosphere that this aspect of her illness created kept the family feeling as if we were walking on eggs.

Knowing what I now know, I attribute her behavior to the dementia which often develops in PD.

I'm so sorry for what you and your family are going through.

My best wishes,

Robert

another idea
 

Has anyone considered another cause for the crazy thoughts? If there is any problem with liver function, the drug will stay in the body much longer than normal and be much stronger than usual. Plus, this is common in the elderly regardless of whether the liver is functioning optimally.

I dont' want to give false hope, but recently a doc prescribed a drug for a family member (nonPD but with known liver problems) and within 2 days cognitive issues were surfacing. Within a day of removing the drug, back to normal. The whole ordeal was a really scary four days, particularly so because we thought our loved one had had a stroke, but the doc found no indication of that and in fact, she passed the little neuro exam the doc did, it was so weird.

The condition is called Hepatic Encephalopathy and can be caused by many things including a drug, electrolyte imbalance (anyone taking diurhetics? My family member was and that just made things way worse...) and several others. Google it and see if maybe this might help your family. Note: it also might not be just one drug, but the interaction of multiple drugs that is causing the problem.

The good news is that it is reversible IF FOUND IN TIME. If not, the person will slip into a coma and die. Don't rely on docs to know about this: our doc had no clue but at least was willing to be educated.

Here is a list of meds she currently takes.
Carb/Levo ER 25/100
Clonazepam 1mg
Lorazepam 1mg
Dicyclomine 10mg
Omeprazole 40mg
Zolpidem 10 mg
Oxycodone 5mg
Azilect 1mg

Im not sure how often she takes most but i do know she take the carb/levo every 3 - 3.5 hours. She used to be able to take the immediate release less often until the stomach problems started.

ask your pharmacist?
 

I don't know enough about all of these drugs to say one way or the other about any of them individually or in combination, so I'd suggest asking a good pharmacist, they are incredibly knowledgeable and usually very helpful. They, more than the docs, seem to know most about drugs, side effects, combinations, etc. I've actually asked a pharmacist what drug could be taken for this or that instead of what is currently being taken and gotten a drug recommendation, then told the doc that's what we wanted to try and he scripted it. It's imiportant to have a doc who's willing to be educated and open to suggestions, of course. This approach can save a lot of time "trying" a spectrum of drugs that may or may not work for a particular person.

Good idea , that would be much simpler than trying to do a search on each one, or trying to add them all in to an drug interaction checker online.

if you want to try the interaction checkers here is a list of some-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post119701-16.html