my dh has really been having the hand tremors. he seems so feeble he has a hard time holding a cup and eating sometimes. i have only noticed this in his hands. he is in stage 6. maybe i wrote about this before. sometimes things just run together, and i can't remember if i wrote it here or if i told my councelor. we have a dr app in dec. but i wanted to get input from you all about this. it is scarey,but it all is . jav
Frand could help you with that. Her husband had such tremors and he would get so angry about it, but I think she is traveling now. That is significant with Parkenson, which Fran's husband had. My husband has Parkenism and some tremors but not severe yet.
I may be corrected on this, but I was told it was a possible side effect of AD meds. I have seen the tremors in my Dad (my dad has AD too, and lives in a memory care facility for 4 years now). His tremors started in stage 6 also. The doctor said that development of Parkinsonian tremors are not "across the board" occurences, but are common. My Dad's only AD med is Aricept. Now my DH takes both Aricept and Namenda and has NO tremors. He's a stage 6. BUT, he does have increased stiffness, and is beginning to slouch forward now. I'm told that is from the Risperdal.
My DW has hand tremors and has had for 3 years. I assume they came from her DWL diagnoses. They are not very bad yet, she is in stage 6 and I use a spoon to give her pills to her and use a straw for her water. She hallucinats (?spelling) a lot, but I am lucky in that she has a good attitude and thanks me for everything I do for her.
My DH had hand tremors before he was diagnosed. In fact that's what brought us to the Neuro in the first place. It was essential tremor and not uncommon in older folks (he's 85 now and this was 6 yrs ago) The doc siad if it became really bad there was medication for it, but if we cold live with it, just don't do anything. he already takes enough meds.
Jav, there's a good chance his medications are causing the tremors. They put my husband on Risperdal and only after 3 doeses he started with the hand tremors and other side-effects, so they took him off of the Risperdal immediately.
My husband has hand tremors that come and go, and has for two years. His is not related to any medication he is taking. He also has restless leg syndrome, both of which are related to Parkinson's. A couple of the early threads here discussed the fact that a lot of Alzheimer's patients will have the tremors and RLS. It is just another of the problems that they must bear with this disease.
To answer your original question - usually stage 5 - some as late as 6 or as early as 4.
Our family Dr. noticed small tremors in my hubby's hands in 1975 or '76, when he was in for bronchitis. Said it was familial or essential tremor--no big deal. After being on psych meds for several years his Psychiatrist put him on meds to control the tremors, now throughout body--said they were med related. At diagnosis in 2005, I was told one of the Stroke scars they found was in the part of the brain which cotrolled the areas where the tremors were. Since then we've changed his meds to give him better control over them and the innvoluntary body movements he has. From what I've been told much of his tremor and all his involuntary movements come out of or came from meds he was or is on. However, without the meds he'd likely be restrained in a locked unit or dead. Some choices we have, huh? Now, to get his BP his arm needs to be supported and he has to be coached to relax his arm--repeated continuously. Otherwise it shakes so bad the machines don't work. He's in stage 6.
Oh my, carosi! Your husband's tremors are much worse! My husband's hands just barely shake a little every once in a while! How awful to have that on top of all the rest! I'm so sorry!
My DH had his first tremors this past weekend. They were brief and mild in his left hand. They returned again on Monday; brief and mild, same hand. I had to get an emergency doctor appt for him yesterday due to shortness of breath and chest pains. Even I suspected they were not cardiac related, at least in the traditional heart attack sense. His regular doctor was booked so we had to see someone else. She was very good, but she does not know DH's history as well as his regular doctor. She was very thorough, stating his lungs and heart were clear with no signs of distress. She even did a chest X-Ray. He has no history of asthma. He has a hard time finding the words to describe what he is feeling, but said it takes a lot of effort to take a full, deep breath and when he can, he feels a pulling type pain near his bronchial area up toward his shoulders. I mentioned the tremors, but she said it could be from the meds. The only med to change recently was an increase in Budeproprion to 150mg 3 times per day. Labs and a general check up were done less than 2 months ago and everything looked great.
I have Parkinson's and as I understand it, the hand tremors are when your hand is at rest. When I purposely use my hand, It doesn't shake. When a person has a trermor of hand at rest, it is called essential tremor. So therefore, I don't think your husband has Parkinson's disease.
Meds can be a source of the breathing problems and the tremors. Not all side effects show up immediately. Some do come on in short order after a med is started. Some side effects don't show up until dosage is increased. Some come on or cause problems after extended exposure. Some side effects stop when the med is stopped and some are permanent once they have manifest. And then if you're "lucky" several all pile onto the same side effect and send it into hyperdrive.
Because your LO has to have certain meds, you may find your LO going through a series of meds to find the one which works the best with the least amount of bad side effect. Essentially you and the Dr. have to find the best/ least bad med for your LO. This is not fun---not for anyone.
I have had essential tremor for as long as I can remember - 20 years at least. It doesn't progress but does sometimes get more pronounced. But it's not noticeable when my hands are at rest. The worst was trying to lean over someone's shoulder and use their mouse to diagnose what was going on on their screen - my hand would shake and the mouse would fly all over the screen. Frustrating! And then there was the time that my hand jerked just as I was pouring (red, beaujolais nouveau) wine at the Thanksgiving table. The bottle dropped, popped a wineglass, and splashed all over everyone!!
Atenolol was prescribed to help it. By now I'd probably be taking it for blood pressure anyhow. I just realized, in this discussion, that I hadn't noticed the tremor lately. It's usually not a very serious problem.
My DH has always had a mild tremor but it has become much worse over the last year. He cannot hardly write because of it. In fact, he says he doesn't worry about his memory (he thinks it is normal aging) but he hates the tremors because it makes it difficult to do anything. He's been on aricept since March and is early stage 4.
Mary it sounds to me like your DH has what they diagnosed my DW with "dementia with lewy bodies" which I understand has symptoms of both alzheimers and parkinsons. My wife has slight tremors as well as REM, she is in what I believe to be stage 6. Why don't you go to "www.lewybodydementia.org" and read their material.
Interesting. I noticed about 3 months ago my wife is never still when sleeping. Something is always jerking or flinching. Makes me wonder how she gets any rest......I sure don't. She also is able to fall asleep almost instantly and start talking in her sleep. She doesn't falter for words when in her sleep- she even talks very fast. However, when she's trying to communicate with someone during waking hours she has a very difficult time getting her thoughts out and when she does they make no sense. Very interesting how fluent she is in her sleep. Thenneck
BillH, thank you for the web site. After reading everything there, the only symptoms my husband has are the occasional hand tremors and restless leg syndrome. He has never had hallucinations, nor any other tremors, nor the other symptoms. His brain scans, MRI and PET scans show that he has AD, and the last brain scan showed more deterioration in the left side of his brain from the year before. His hand tremors are minor - and when pointed out to him, he can stop them.
It is very interesting how some of the different symptoms for each of the dementias are tied together.
Mary, it truly is weird. All of the dementias have some things in common. I truly believe that the stages of Alzheimer's are actually the stages of all dementias. For example I'd be really surprised to find someone who is totally incontinent from their dementia who can speak at a normal baseline adult level. It would be normal to find someone with mostly stage 4 symptoms and some stage 5s, and maybe even a few areas that are still at late stage 3.
And all of them are a slow terminal illness. Sooner or later their minds forget how to digest food and breathe.
We first had the diagnosis of benign essential tremor, but later that was changed to Parkinson's. I guess I am trying to forget all about this now, but I thought one could control Parkinson's, but not essential tremor. There is more of Parknson's with Lewy bodies. I think if you want to get the best diagnosis it is worth it to go to a research hospital. I understand there are better drugs now to address the hand tremors. We were going to try one but Hank died before we got to that point.
We were originally told essential, or familial tremor and they were small. When meds were blamed for their worsening, meds to control them were given and helped a lot. As time and additional input from meds made them worse, eventually a 2nd med to control them was added. Now, he's on 2 meds. One helps reduce their severity. The other lets him have more control of his hands and also actually control the tremors (with coaching). Nothing is going to make them go away.
I had missed this thread when it started but when I saw it, I had the same question. My dh has hand tremors that started about 4-6 weeks ago. I'm guessing he is at the end of stage 5 and showing signs of stage 6. He sees his neurologist in a couple of weeks. I will bring this up to him.
My husband's hand tremors started about 6 weeks ago.......He is in the BAP study, but this doesn't seem to be a side effect. He's between stages 5 and 6.
Thanks so much for the welcome. I've been here for about 18 months, but seemed to have lost my screen name and password......Nothing else on MY mind. LOL
I pulled this up again because I'm starting to notice subtle hand tremors when Jeff eats. Maybe that just happens to be when I look at his hands. He's not on a likely med for tremors (only takes aricept and namenda,) but this observation has made me curious about the frequency of this problem.
My DH had tiny tremors in hands, Dx'd as "familial tremors" in1976. Was tld worsening tremors were from med. side effects in 1990's. After Neuro-psych test in 2006--probably from 1 of 2 significant Strokes no one knew he had. His Dx is Vascular Dementia and he takes 2 meds to control them (mostly).
Interesting. I can find nothing online that attributes tremors TO Alzheimer's. Most sources suggest that if they occur in the same person there is a secondary cause--Parkinson's, strokes, a particular medication, etc.
The only thing I can think of is that his MRI has revealed several microbleeds, or tiny localized "strokes," which occurred within the past several years. I suppose if more occur it could result in any number of effects, including tremors.
My dh has hand tremors especially in the morning. I commented on it once, and he said "Yes I know." He is stage 6 and is on Exelon and Risperidon (and has diabetes).
Lynn's hands only shook for a brief period of time and that was when he was so sick with the pneumonia. Never shook before or after so his doctor said it was from the illness. On my Dad's side, the whole family developes severe essential tremors later in life. For some reason all the men are worse than the women.
My mom never had the hand tremors but then there were not the meds for her in 1994 I don't think that our LOs have now that might be a cause. My brother on the other hand, no pun intended, does not have dementia but does have a form of autism for which is was on lithium which did give him the tremors and that med had to be withdrawn.
Thanks, Kadee It was rather strange, we were in a restruant eating when all of a sudden it was like she could not drink from her glass without spraying water everywhere. I got her a straw but is was rather odd.