My Brother has had Parkinson's for 6 years now. symptoms are more noticeable now. What are the final stages?

Question

He is Maxed out on the amount of Drugs hecan take for the illness. However, he is upbeat and still riding his Bike. He says ":this helps his muscle tone and coordination". He is 63 years old. I am curious on what I am up against down the line.

Answer 1

The final stages include difficulty (if not impossibility) with self care, such as dressing, bathing, and feeding oneself. The muscles become increasingly rigid, severely limiting any type of movement. One will find him/herself being unable to walk or transfer without help. Chewing, swallowing, airway protection, and speech difficulty are inevitable. Most PD patients die from aspiration pneumonia because food and liquid enter the airway and into the lungs, as the cough reflex is weakened and the muscles of respiration become rigid.

Answer 2

If he is able to ride his bike, he is very far from being in the last stages of the illness. My mother, at times, could not life a foot off the floor much less ride a bike. He is relatively young to have had the disease six years. There are new treatments for Parkinson's coming out all of the time. Has he checked into any of the surgeries that could help him? The only way to really be maxed out on the traditional drugs is if the side effects are getting too bad, such as the dykensia one can get from too much of the drugs.

I live in Alaska, and I ended up taking my mother who had Parkinson's to Oregon to see a Parkinson's specialist. We have neurologists here but not anyone who specifically specializes in Parkinson's. The doctor we saw immediately doubled her medication dosages. Her own doctor had told her he couldn't "see" prescribing any higher doseages. So OHSU (I believe that is Oregon Health Sciences University) told her to stay on the higher dosage for a while to see how it worked. She was also told that she was eligible for one of the surgeries and that she should think about that. Unfortunately my mother passed away of something else before we could pursue this surgery.

The reason we went to Oregon was because it was reasonably close, but there are many Parkinson's specialists around the country. Find one near to where your brother lives and see what a specialist has to say.

Good luck to you both.

Answer 3

Exercise will help him keep his muscle and his mind tonus. Parkinson's disease evolves slowly and, probably in a few years medication will improve very much, so maybe the disease will be cured.
Anyway, in the last stages of Parkinson, patients can't eat by themselves because their hands are trembling too bad, they can't walk, usually they have bad constipation and sometimes problems urinating.
They also can have hallucinations and psychotic episodes.
Patients with terminal Parkinson's disease die because of lung infections due to immobilization.
Good luck with your brother, I wish him good, healthy years,
Cristiana

Answer 4

My dad has had it for about 6 years as well. I'm not as smart on it as I should be but I don't think anyone ever died from Parkinson. I believe..in worst case scenarios...that partial or total paralysis can occur in the later stages.

Check out link for more info..and good luck.