Preininger's Story

My husband was diagnosed with PD a couple of years ago, to complicate matters he is an amputee, right leg, and his roto cuffs are severely damaged and not operable!

As far as we can find out there wasn’t any Parkinson's in his family tree. My husband is 72 and has always been an avid hunter. Guns and wildlife are his life, we live in a small town northwest of San Antonio, Tx. On a ranch that is now managed by me, a city girl, with the help of several people. He has one daughter who, along with her husband and daughter live about 5 to 6 hours away from us so they can’t get here as often as they would like too. I have two sons with their families and lives don’t get to come out as often as we’d like, both living in the San Antonio area. I tell you this so you will know that we are by ourselves for the most part, they come and help as often as their lives will allow.

My husband has probably had this disease for as long as ten yrs or more before being diagnosed, we can see that now as his disease has rapidly gone downhill. His walking is affected with constant freezing and enhanced due to the artificial leg, which he has had since the age of thirteen. He can no longer raise his arms due to the damaged roto cuffs. This makes it most difficult to reach for things ie: grab bars. Personal care is next to impossible for him.

In the past his dementia has come and gone but lately it is sticking around for what looks like the duration. He is beginning to have LIVID dreams and it takes most of the day to get him “over” it. He is on levodopa, and a series of vitamins. He has developed neuropathy also and for this he is taking hydrocodone for the pain and it helps him go to sleep when his nerves refuse to settle down.

That is our story for the most part, lol I feel like I could right an award winning novel on this but I will stop there to avoid putting the reader to sleep.