Helping Those Who Care for Parkinson's Patients
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Started mom on Donepezil on December 26th. It's supposed to help with her hallucinations and memory. The doctor prescribed 1/2 tablet per day for 2 weeks, then a full tablet after that. The doctor mentioned something about seeing if mom tolerates it well, but as usual the possible negative side effects are left vague. ... Mom had some diarrhea a couple days ago, and again today, with some nausea. But today this didn't start until late--5 or 6pm. The rest of the day was pretty good. She even got up early, puttered around in the bathroom, and went back to bed with some minor help. She was in a great mood this morning. ... Anyway, I looked up the side effects, and diarrhea is one of the main reasons people stop taking it, but it also said those who kept taking it had side effects resolve themselves within 3 weeks once the body gets used to it. Now it's the weekend, I can't contact the doctor, and I hate to stop it when we are already a week in. She also takes misoprostol for chronic constipation, so I was considering cutting that dosage in half tomorrow. She virtually NEVER has diarrhea, and twice in one week is pretty strange, so I do think it's a side effect of the Donepezil. |
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| I hope it works. My husband had nausea and consequently low appetite. He lost about 8 pounds over a month or six weeks, so ultimately we discontinued. |
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| I cut her misoprostol dose in half (for constipation), and it seemed to resolve over the weekend. I hope to hear back from the doctor today sometime. |
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I got a message back, but from the nurse who always seems clueless in MyChart messages. She told me Dr. G doesn't prescribe the Misoprostol, so why don't I contact that prescriber instead. I explained that mom's neurologist is Dr. W, not Dr. G (who picks up the messages when Dr. W is not there), that mom has been on Misoprostol for years for chronic constipation, and that I reduced it to 3/day instead of 6/day due to the Donepezil diarrhea. I told her I just wanted to be sure this made sense, but mom stabilized over the weekend anyway. ... That nurse always seems to want to simplify the question so much that, if it were that simple, I wouldn't have messaged them in the first place. Plus, I always wonder why they take the time to list all the meds she's on every single time we go, only to be dismissed by asking about meds that that doctor is not specifically prescribing. The underlying assumption seems to be that the patient is not a "whole" person, because if a different doctor is prescribing something, it can't be considered in what is happening to the patient *as a whole*. That just annoys the heck out of me because it seems being brain-dead simplistic is the goal, not treating the patient. |
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Hi guys. Well, I tried to increase the donepezil to about 3/4 of a pill for 4-5 days. She didn't have any more diarrhea, but some nausea, and random "off" time that was worse and as early as 11:30am, when usually it's around 1 or 1:30 and much milder. The caregiver called me at work 2 or 3 days and I had her stay until I got home. The days in between mom was fine. Finally she had one day where she was dizzy in the morning (which is supposed to be a common side effect), so I went back down to 1/2 a donepezil (think if she stabilized, I could try to move the dose up again). ... I had also kept her on the medium settings for her DBS since she had been doing better (all day) at that level. One evening I turned it up higher, and she began running around cleaning everything, so I was afraid to turn it up when I was at work for fear of that happening in the middle of the day (although that's what I had been doing a few weeks ago with no problem except maybe in the evening, when was there to turn it down). ... My current plan was, since this is a 3 day weekend, to turn her DBS up at 7am the way I had been doing several weeks ago. She did well today until about 3pm, so made it through her usual 11:30am off time with no problem. I gave her an extra 1/4 sinemet from her old meds also at 6pm, but her "off" time is lingering into the evening. I went to take a walk outside, as I often do, and told her so. I came back in the house 30-40 minutes later with her on the phone and anxious. She called the police to do a "wellness check" because I wasn't coming back, and she couldn't remember if I went downstairs or outside! (She's never done anything like that before.) ... I really have no idea if the donepezil is causing these random issues or not, but I think I've given up and will stop the 1/2 pill tomorrow, and continue to turn her DBS all the way up at 7am (turning it back down at bedtime). I really thought it was helping for a while, but now I don't know. She also hasn't done any exercises in almost 2 weeks, so she's probably worse from that also. |