Find Senior Care (City or Zip)
Join Now Log In
T
Texascowgal08 Asked October 2023

Anyone here dealing with a parent with vascular parkinsonism?

One of my parents has vascular parkinsonism due to small mini strokes. Mom is basically bedbound. Not sure if it’s because of the parkinsonism or if it’s because she is just hardheaded. But she’s been in the bed so long she is not able to get out anymore. In the past month I noticed she has started talking slower. Not sure if this is a progression of the disease or if she has had another stroke but it is hard to figure that out when you can’t really transport her to a doctor from the nursing home. Just wondering if anyone here has dealt with this disease and what I can expect.


funkygrandma59 Oct 2023
Loss of mobility is one of the end stages of vascular parkinsonism, and the fact that your mom is now bedridden, makes me think that it may be time to bring hospice on board.
They will have a nurse come to the nursing home once a week to start to check her vitals and such, aides to come bathe her at least twice a week, plus they will supply all of her needed equipment, supplies and medications all covered 100% under moms Medicare.
A nurse practitioner will also be assigned to your mom and you'll have access to the hospice chaplain, volunteers and social worker. Again all covered 100% under Medicare.

My late husband had vascular dementia which is the most aggressive of all the dementias, with a life expectancy of just 5 years. And he was under hospice care in our home for the last 22 months of his life. And he too was completely bedridden those last 22 months of his life.

It's tough this I know, but with hospice on board you no longer have to worry about getting mom to the doctor and they will keep her comfortable and pain free until the Good Lord calls her Home.
Wishing you all well.

ADVERTISEMENT


cwillie Oct 2023
My mom began having obvious TIA's in her 90's (talking word salad) but her MRI "lit up like a Christmas tree" so she had obviously been having silent ones for a long time. Although her neurologist treated her for stroke nobody ever mentioned Parkinson's (or vascular dementia for that matter) until her family doc decided that was one of her problems and prescribed sinemet - I've never been confident with that diagnosis but it did explain some of her symptoms. Mom went from perfectly fine to falling a lot to flat affect and dementia very rapidly and I was left searching for a reason that I never got from the medical community, that's how I found AgingCare. I cared for her at home as long as she was still able to stand and pivot but she spent her final 18 months in the nursing home; by that point she was on a pureed diet, was mostly non verbal and slept more than she was awake. She died at age 99 - she was frail but still my mother at 95 but by the end she was skeletal and her death was a blessing. And yet right up until the end sometimes she was absolutely "there".

BarbBrooklyn Oct 2023
Please ignore the first nonsense post.

Can you not arrange medical transport for testing?

Can her doctor order PT and speech therapy for her?

Has she had any falls? You want to make sure that there hasn't been a break (hip, pelvis) and that she's in pain.

ADVERTISEMENT

Ask a Question

Subscribe to
Our Newsletter