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Parkinson's Disease
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Posted 8/11/2009 1:09 AM (GMT 0)
I posted on here a while ago when my Mother's falls were becoming quite frequent. She was diagonised three years ago, and she's 64. Stavelo was recommended to me, but it didnt seem to help much.

Since then she's got a "wheelie" thing which she uses around the house, but she's still falling frequently, an average of once a day, but sometimes more than that.
The problem seems to be when she's standing straight, and not gripping the wheelie, she just seems to keel backwards or forwards. At the moment she's got a whopper of a black eye from where she hit her head at the weekend. I just fear a really, really bad fall is coming.

Is it normal for people to fall this often? If anyone could give me any hints, tips or help I would really appreciate it.
Posted 8/11/2009 3:23 AM (GMT 0)
SGH:

Well, I really recommend that you take her back to the neurologist.

My personal experience is that dyskinesia was causing me to lose my balance. Requip was terrible for it but it did get a bit better with Stalevo. Now that I've changed to Sinemet I am really pretty "stable".

Something you might try is to see if she can walk holding a laser pointer while shining the beam on the ground in front of her by about 3 feet. The red ones aren't bright enough to be used outside but the green "astronomy party" lasers work well outside. You can get a green laser off the Internet for about $30 as I recall.

It occurred to me, finally, that my brain needed to "sense" the ground and that all of that was getting messed up because I had lost sensitivity on my right side. What was nice is that my mind can apparently keep me balanced just by watching the laser beam "shake" on the ground. It took me about 20 minutes before my "brain" figured it out but I can walk long distances again with very little difficulty. What's funny is that I can "skip"! It really amazes my wife to see me skipping with that laser when only about a year ago I couldn't even stand up in the shower.

I started using the laser about a year ago and it helps me a lot. It became my "cane". No promises that it will work for her but it has been a godsend for me.

I sincerely hope that this proves helpful.

Good luck!
Posted 8/11/2009 4:49 AM (GMT 0)
SGH:

I just checked. You can get a green laser pointer here for only $16.00:

http://www.hdeshop.com/20mw-532nm-Astronomy-Powerful-Green-Laser/M/B001MHFKCI.htm
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