Person with parkinsons disease

[Bernieneedfixing]

I was diagnosed in 2002

When l went to my local dr. With some symptoms of mind games, dragging one leg, writing getting scribbymas l continued writing, hard to sign my name, but no tremors yet, my dr. Sent me to a neurologist who when l told him of the symptoms, stated l had early signs of Parkinson’s disease, l must of had a shock look Om my face as he stated he would send me for a MRI, so off for this procedure had it in the morning and then went to see the results in the a/noon,

He produced the MRI and in his words said Oh shit, as a brain tumour was found, he said we have to fix that first, we can treat the Parkinson’s with medication later. I needed heaps of radiation to try and kill/shrink the tumour this never worked since so an operation was necessary, then l was treated by the hospitals Parkinson’s neurologist department, where l was treated by different neurologists, each time l went there, l did tests after tests, and was not improvingabout a year after all these tests l was starting to think l did not have Parkinson’s, l eventually saitomy neurologist this and he replied this is far as l can go l can send you to the experts, who were situated in the same hospital working under “movement disorder clinic” and they were sensational as l was having tremors and involuntary movements plus vivid dreams and hallucinations, working together we decided to have the dbs operation, which was a huge success with the complete stopping of the tremors and involuntary movements.

Bot the next obstacle was having falls.

From Bernie from Morwell Australia.

[Gaz1403]

Hi Bernie.

I, too, was d’x’d in 2002 and after steady decline had DBS in 2015. This has been an outstanding success in many ways but I also have a real problem with falls. I do several activities every week: Boxing for Parky’s; walking football; power p.d. (similar to Pd warrior); Nordic Pole Walking; popping for Parky’s and (occasionally) table tennis.

When I first started playing WF in late 2015, I only fell over on the odd occasion, but this gradually increased until I was forced to go in goal - firstly some of the time but that soon became all of the time.

My neurologist has tried a few different meds - I was on Stalevo before and after my DBS but she weaned me off that and I am now on Co-careldopa (or Sinamet) with, of course, the compulsory Rasagaline.

Nothing seems to work and I am now feeling nervous of going out as I can fall over at any time - although I don’t hurt myself (apart from grazed knees) as I manage to “soft fall”.

Luckily, I am still able to drive but these falls are beginning to rule my life.

My Neuro seems to be surprised by the fact that I have so many falls but I have heard of a few pwp’s that suffer with them. Do you have any strategies to alleviate them?

Kind regards

Gary

[Zardoz]

Are the two of you (Bernie & Gaz) suggesting that falls are a possible side effect of DBS?

Is DBS for tremor dominant PD or does it help with rigidity and freezing?

[chartist in reply to Zardoz]

This is an old article, but apparently falls and DBS are a real thing :

parkinsonalliance.org/new/f...

Art