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Parkinson’s SUCKS
But We Won’t Let It Win
As I’ve mentioned in some of my other posts, my dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's in his mid 30s and is now at the end stages of this horrible disease. This means very limited mobility, 24hr nursing care and the beginning of early-onset Parkinson's related Dementia, and my god is it tough.
He struggles with timeframes, he struggles with hallucinations, he can't remember names and faces very well, although he is starting to remember regular carers by voice. He can’t remember Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Star Trek or Gavin & Stacey but can remember jokes from the past and recently.
His short term memory is hit and miss. Sometimes he remembers an episode of a comedy show he’s watched on YouTube or the telly, other times he’s remembered a quiz show he wanted to watch with me (Lee Mack’s 1% Club if anybody is interested).
Some days he’s completely lucid, he’ll know the day, the date, the year. He’ll remember what we talked about the day before and he’ll continue a conversation we were having. Other days he’ll think it’s been weeks and will question why I haven’t visited in so long.
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve noticed that the hallucinations are becoming more frequent. It’s mostly thinking he’s holding his iPad or a piece of paper and asking me to check that everything is…
