Chapter 505 - A Touch of Sickness

Wednesday was the 9th November, 55 years since we married. Just another day, my respite day, she had a quiet day at home with a care lady from Wild Dog and I bought items, including a small bottle of Calamine lotion for her occasional itchy patches, at the chemist then spent a few hours at the club. Then on Thursday I took her for another Dance for PD session (she had attended her usual group on Tuesday) held at Wild Dog. These are conducted every second Thursday and Wild Dog said she is able to attend free of charge. I expected her to meet some of her old friends from a year or two ago when she attended a day group there several times each week but she recognised no one.

Saturday 10th November, was a new experience for me. The day began as usual at about 0615 setting up her Duodopa pump. Then a little after 0800 I got her out of bed onto the toilet. About to help her off the loo onto the commode-shower chair to have a shower I noticed that the toilet bowl was awash in soupy poop. She was unaware that she had pooped. She had no pains, no flatulence. While under the shower more poop dribbled out. Out of the shower, the pan back under the commode, more poop dribbled out as I dried her. At 0825 I threaded her incontinence pants onto her legs then began to raise them as she tried to stand into the Sara transporter; the effort of standing caused more poop to dribble into the pants. Back onto the commode, feet up on a padded stool (no pun intended, there were no others in sight). She was very passive, drowsy, began to go to sleep. At 0910 she was slightly bilious but nothing came of that. Still in the bathroom, I gave her water to drink but decided against any breakfast. Sunlight coming in the bathroom widow bothered her so I draped a blanket over it. At about 0930, on seeing the bottle of Calamine lotion on her trolley, she told me that last night while I was still reading in bed & the light was still on, she had swallowed a mouthful of the Calamine lotion thinking it a small bottle of fruit juice. There seemed very little had been used from the bottle; I had bought it on Wednesday and rubbed some on her legs Friday evening. She assured me she was not hallucinating or imagining that she had drunk some, although she only has a vague idea how it tasted. Admittedly, the bottle was a similar size to some fruit juice bottles we recently had, the fluid quite thin and the colour a light pink and could be called "strawberry". I searched for the consequences of drinking Calamine lotion, diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach pain, chills, cough, fever, mouth and throat irritation, yellow eyes and skin. She had none of these except diarrhoea. She said she wanted to go to bed. Her BP was 116/84 pulse 88 using her small wrist monitor at 1000. After some more poop dribbled into the commode pan I waited awhile before cleaning her, putting clean pants on her and placing her into bed. As I did so, she belched and vomited yellowish fluid (water she had drunk) down her night dress, which was replaced. She had difficulty expelling thick phlegm from her mouth but this is normal. At 1100 her BP was 131/79 pulse 86 and she was asleep. She slept soundly until about 1500 when I put her on her wheel chair after taking her to the toilet where there were no more signs of diarrhoea. By 1630 she wished to return to bed. She said she felt peculiar but was unable to be more specific. On the way to bed a stop over to the loo without signs of diarrhoea. At 1640 her BP was 127/77 pulse 83 and then she slept. At 1920 she had woken so to loo then wheel chair and watched TV for about an hour then we both went to bed. A usual night and this morning was quite normal. We plan to go down the street for lunch and shopping, the first time she done so in a number of weeks. So had she taken a mouthful of Calamine lotion on Friday night, some 10 hours prior to diarrhoea on the toilet?

Chapter 504 - Winding Down

Her hallucinations gradually subsided in the week following the cessation of Symmetrel. On Tuesday 23rd October I went on my own to post copies of FitBit charts recorded during the last doses of Symmetrel to Dr F. Prior to my leaving she complained of seeing "people" in our kitchen; I think the first time she displayed concern about hallucinations. I returned with a surprise present for her; an epilator. For quite a long time she has attempted to remove old lady facial hair with finger tips or tweezers so I thought some sort of feminine razor may cheer her. In searching for such a device I had to google the word "epilator" to learn what it was.

A sweater she cut the arms out of was binned. Since then she removed the fancy lace bottoms of the legs and the waist band from a pair of quite nice (to my thinking anyway) blue slacks over a period of several days. More days were spent fitting a larger waist band but I don't think the job is finished yet. Her sewing jobs take ages and mostly end in rubbish. She knows want she wants to accomplish at the beginning but becomes lost along the way.

Recently I replaced the batteries in her little scooter, not used in about 10 years. One afternoon I took her to a local park to check how easily she could slide from the car seat on the slider board onto the scooter. There was no great difficulty; other than she was dead scared of controlling the scooter. The trial was cut short because someone we knew stopped to talk. Last Sunday I took her to ride around the rose garden area of the park. She was more terrified this time, tending to hold the handle bars with rigid arms, negotiating bends with difficulty. At all times the speed control has been on minimum. I'm unsure whether trying again is worth the effort.

Since the hallucinations began she has no desire to go shopping on Sundays. Says she doesn't like being in the car. I just mentioned to her that we haven't been shopping together since the hallucinations began and that may be why she hasn't wished to go out. She has agreed to go to Target this afternoon. The place has its own parking area separate to the main shopping area.

Since cancelling the Symmetrel her FitBit charts show that her bouts of dyskinesia are of shorter duration and when they begin I try to give her a couple of soluble Panadol, seeming to relax her and stop her legs kicking. Researching Symmetrel on line I found that an extended release form is available but is not yet on the PBS and that taken at night it has a beneficial effect on LID (stands for "levidopa induced dydkinesia") during the following day. With or without hallucinations I can but ask when we next see the neuro.