I went with Mom and Dad to a Parkinson's doctor this morning since he hadn't been to a Parkinson's specialist for a couple of years. Just to check on his meds, esp. since he's so sleepy all the time. Unfortunately, they screwed up the referral and said he was a new patient, so they assigned him to a different doctor, who then had to go through all his history again, so it was like a new visit instead of a follow-up. He didn't seem to happy about that and seemed to want Dad to see the other doctor next time. Good try, huh?

Anyway, this doctor said that he wants to increase his Levodopa (for his Parkinson's) to 4 pills a day instead of 3. I can't remember that he gave a specific reason. To see if he shakes less? He said the L-dopa doesn't usually make patients sleepy, but if someone has Parkinson's then it will make them "wobbly," by which he means that sort of fidgetyness that you may observe in Michael J. Fox.

He did several tests and said that Dad had Parkinson's-like symptoms

• stiffness
• shaking of hands (although Dad had Essential Tremors, which is a quicker sort of shaking, prior to this--I think Fred, Mitch and Gus have experienced this after drinking a lot of caffeine)
• slowness of movement

He said Dad displayed memory loss since his last visit, but that this was probably due to age and that his CT scan (when??) showed reduced vascular activity due probably to age and high blood pressure (I think that was it). He also said that Dad's "Unique Personality" didn't seem to stem from the meds, so he wasn't sure if he could do anything about it. He mentioned giving Dad a stimulant for his sleepiness, such as low-grade Ritalin, but he really didn't want to go there. Instead, he gave Dad a prescription for something to help him sleep at night. The problem with this is that Dad will then stand up next to the bed and pee b/c he can't make it to the potty. Or else he'll pee in the bed, which is also a major annoyance... He needs to stop drinking Coke Zero before he goes to bed b/c this is 1) a liquid and 2) has caffeine in it.

The doctor also gave Dad a prescription for something to help with his constipation. The NP wanted Mom to give Dad MiraLAX every day, but she says Dad just lets it sit there and doesn't drink it.

The follow-up appointment is in April. Nice long time to wait and see if things get any better, huh?

BTW, Dad told the doctor that it wasn't certain that Aunt Dorothy had Parkinson's! That was news to me. Mom also thought that the complications from Parkinson's were what she eventually died from.