Help me understand this please..

My wife came home tonight after bringing her mother for a few tests and told me she was diagnosed with Parkinsons.

I really dont have a clue what this means. As the only close disease I have been familiarized with is Cancer as my grandmother has just passed from it a couple months ago.

Some history on my mother inlaw..

Her grandmother did have Parkinsons.

My mother in law has a slight drinking problem.. She loves her wine..enuf to prolly keep her buzzin all day but not stumbling drunk..

Last summer she gave us a scare when she was watching our (at the time 10 month old) daughter. She collapsed and broght down the TV with her.. barely missing my daughter on the floor.. she cant remember what happened...

So about a month ago she decided enufs enuf and proceeded to quit drinking.. she stopped cold turkey and was put on anti-withdrawal medication.. within days she took a turn for the worse... we recieved a phone call from her neighbors saying they found her colapsed on the floor barely able to talk.. my wife rushed up there and spent the day with her.. before returning home they made an agreement to speak by phone before bedtime... we called.. no answer...

My wife and i talked and she decided her other went to bed and forgot..

the next morning i get a call from the neighbors again saying she collapse in the bathroom and looks like shes been there all night.. my wife was crushed..

So we had her admitted to the hospital at this point.. she wasnt able to stand or talk very well.

They ruled out a stroke and assumed it was the medication/ dehidration that caused the events..

She got somewhat better and as of today can walk without the walker and her speech is 75% back to normal..

But as I said the tests she had today siad she has Parkinsons..

What do you think?

Could it be something else like this HLD or whatever...

You know more than me so gimme some insight.. and if it is.. some insight on the disease itself... like how fast it progresses..medical needs, etc

THANKS

Grivvits,

One thing I can tell you about Parkinsons is that it likes to play 'hide and seek'. In the begininning Mom used to be talking and chatting and then it was like someone poured a bucket of paint over her. Her facial expression would change to a glum stare, she would freeze... it would panic her totally. In a little while it would pass and she would call it one of her spells.. but it was so frustrating because it came and went without warning. She broke her ankle and it wouldn't heal because of osteoporosis. While in the hospital she was sitting in a chair and asked me to pick up her blanket that had fallen off of her lap. I told her she needed to do as much as possible for herself and that she needed to do it. That was the first time I had an inkling of what was going on with her. She sat there frozen and tears started to roll down her cheeks and she sort of mumbled.... "I can't pick it up... I can't move... I think I'm paralyzed!"

It was months after that before we found out that she had PD. One minute she could be doing some mending or writing a letter and the next she would be limp in her chair. So give your mum-in-law the benefit of the doubt and help her out. She has a long journey to travel and it's better with people who love and care for you.