It's not Alzheimer's

It’s Parkinson’s disease! He was misdiagnosed all of this time. We went to the neurologist on Thursday and she had him diagnosed within an hour. We were amazed at what she pointed out to us.

He has NOT been having mini strokes, NOR does he have Alzheimer’s disease. He does have a loss of memory and has trouble with speech. That is all symptoms of Parkinson’s.

So the treatment now is that he has to be slowly weaned off of the Alzheimer’s medication. He has started a new medication and been removed from one of the Alzheimer’s medication. The others will be removed over the next few months.

He is also having home therapy. This will help him with walking, eating, and daily things like getting dressed. We have been told that once the new medication gets in his system we will start to see a big change in him.

Parkinson’s is a very touchy disease and while it is treatable there is no cure for it. Stress and change in schedule will agitate the disease. So we are still asking for no bad news to be shared with Bob. Each time he has bad news there is a decline in his condition and that is a classic symptom of Parkinson’s disease.

The disease is not hereditary and they are not sure what brings the disease out, but the trauma from his neck injury is most likely what brought this on.

Bob has been in a much better mood since the doctor visit. While he still is not sure what is wrong with him, he knows that Rob and I were thrilled with the news and so that made him feel so much better. As a caregiver to Bob I am so happy to finally have some answers. I now know why he is having trouble walking, and I can stop fussing at him, and start helping him. There are a lot of things that make sense now and finally a light is at the end of the long tunnel.

Rob and I both know that the tunnel is a long one and at Bob’s age this recovery is not going to be easy. With prayer and a lot of hard work I know that Bob will have a good road ahead.