New drug / Dad's mood

[Guest guest]

Well, we met with Dad's neurologist yesterday for the first time since

he diagnosed Dad with LBD early this year and although it was

interesting, it was also a pretty awful day.

Dad had an MRI yesterday morning and we took the images on disc to the

neuro. He said it was worse than would be expected in someone Dad's age

(77) but about right for someone with LBD. He also said that the small

'white spots' could indicate a couple of small strokes at some time in

the past. Dad watched and listened to everything and seemed to take it

all in (he was tired but quite cognisant).

The neuro (who is one of Australia's Parkinson's experts but who also

has LBD patients) wrote a prescription for my father for his delusions,

as well as his mood - which has been very irritable and frustrated but

not aggressive physically. The drug is (SEROQUEL or QUETIAPINE). For the

first time in a long time, Dad slept the whole night through. He didn't

even get up to go to the bathroom as he usually does several times a

night. But today, his mood was even worse. He was looking at people in

the street and saying negative things about them for seemingly no reason

and almost every time my mother spoke, he told her to " Shhh " . Has anyone

had experience with Quetiapine?

We found while speaking with Dad's neuro that Dad's general practitioner

had not followed his (the neuro's) instructions from earlier this year

to take Dad off Sinemet (Carbidopa-Levodopa) which he was prescribed

last year for Parkinson's so we have to keep him on that for the time

being.

In the process of asking the neuro some questions, including how we

could improve Dad's heart fitness without putting him at risk due to the

LBD (very poor balance, frequent falls, etc), he said that we shouldn't

expect Dad to get better. This was said in front of Dad and from the

moment we left the clinic, Dad was noticeably down mood-wise and has

been since. I felt quite bad that this was said in front of Dad and wish

I could go back in time. He struggles so much with staying positive so

this was a real sledgehammer blow kind of thing to hear. Even if it's

true, we didn't want him to hear that.

The good/better news is that we saw Dad's cardiologist today as well and

asked him about exercise and he has suggested hydrotherapy so we are

currently looking into that. Has anyone had experience with a LO with

LBD having done hydrotherapy? He has also reduced and eliminated some

of Dad's blood pressure drugs as Dad has had terrible dizziness and it

was the Professor's opinion that these drugs were making Dad's BP way

too low, so we're hoping that will help with Dad's movement. He also

said he will write to Dad's neuro to let him know more about Dad's heart

condition and treatment which I think is great.

So, some good news, some not so good but the thing I'm concerned about

the most is Dad's depression. He was hoping that the neuro was going to

have good news for him and help him feel better so it was so sad to see

his face from that appointment onwards. I had terrible nightmares about

it all last night.

Thanks so much for your posts. The ones I read this morning (Australian

time) were so helpful. We had Dad in a wheelchair yesterday for the

first time to get him around the hospital and it made life so much

easier but it's good to know that using it too much is not good for

keeping Dad mobile. Also, knowing about providing 'cues' is priceless

and something I won't be forgetting any time soon.

Peace to all.

Tania.