- physical symptoms first...

[Guest guest]

My dad's experience is exactly opposite of yours, where he started

with the cognitive first, and is only now showing a wee bit of the

physical. But, boy oh boy, he can't think the way he used to.

I'm really interested in seeing how the data pans out, comparing

folks who started with dementia vs parkinsons symptoms...

> Hey ,

>

> I've never seen dad trying to throw any animals down the stairs

but then he

> lives in a bungalow....

>

> Your assessment is pretty spot on. He has more physical trouble

than mental.

> Generally just slow. He can do stuff but it takes forever. Until

the sun

> goes down and then he's most likely to see things. A carer (that's

English

> for caregiver) feeds him his pills at 7 in the evening. That

consists of a

> pretty high dose of Quetiapine which seems to half send him to

sleep. He

> then tends to forget his night pills which he has to take himself.

That's

> his Aricept amongst other things. Of course if he forgets that

he's a little

> less with it the next night. I'm trying to get that rearranged.

>

> The sleep disorder thing. Well I never noticed it but while he was

in

> hospital and they were watching him they said he had it. The plan

for

> dealing with it is to feed him elephant tranquillisers last thing

at night.

> I suspect it's a mild problem at the moment. He does tend to see

things much

> more at night and keeps a small light on these days. Dark seems to

be a

> trigger for problems. Most of the frightening hallucinations have

been at

> night. Once in a while he works out that things aren't real but

that's rare.

> He said once that there was a " nasty " man in his bedroom. The man

went and

> hid under his bed but dad realised that there was only a 2 inch

gap under

> his bed so he grabbed the man who " melted " out of existence. Sadly

he

> promptly reappeared. Sounds like something out of the movies to me

and you

> have to wonder if that inspired the melting thing.....

>

>

> Interesting Reading - ' responses

to LBD

> STAGES PROJECT -

>

>

> The award to the most entertaining answers to my project goes to

> ! Not that I should be surprised, but still I was.

>

> , it sounds like your Dad is doing pretty well cognitively,

but

> not physically.

>

> I am curious about one of your answers. You said the doctor said

> your dad has RBD, but you sounded like you might not believe him.

> What are his symptoms?

>

> My father's RBD started about a hundred years ago. (ok, maybe

only

> 30, but my mother still talks about it and they've been divorced

for

> 20 years!) He used to thrash about the bed like crazy, and she'd

> get bumped around pretty good. (With RBD, you aren't paralyzed

like

> you should be when you're dreaming.)

>

> About 3 years ago, he started having nightmares where he thought

> animals were attacking him. He awoke and still had

hallucinations

> about his dreams. He kept a flashlight beside his bed so that he

> could find them wherever they were hiding in his room. He'd get

out

> of bed, get a shoe, and beat the heck out of nothing. He told me

> once that the funniest time was when he found himself trying to

> throw a chicken down the stairs.

>

> Any of that sound familiar??

>

>

>

>

>