Actually, I've observed a hint of this before, but it was a little more evident at dinner tonight, and daughter pointed it out. Jeff was eating his sandwich with that shakiness in the grip.
Don't know whether this will be a rare new friend, or whether we're slipping into a bit of Parkinsonism. Well, not that it matters really. Shot neurology can decline in many ways I suppose.
We've seen this for yeaes. Originally toldit was "familial tremor.(in other words no known cause). After the VaD Dx, in explanation of his Neuro-Psych test, I was told damage in the area of one of his large Stroke scars was likely the source. If/when it becomes problematic, there are effective meds to control it.
Seems part of the disease. Neurologist asked hb to hold out his hand and said she was looking for that "symptom." A man in hb's unit has the problem (it has a name I've forgotten; someone here will know). His silverware has the large rubbery handles similar to the ones on the kitchen utensils I buy for arthritic hands.
I think this is quite common. some men even without alz or Parkinson. I am told a Parkinson shake is a circular shake the tremors are not. My husband and his father had the tremors. His father also had alz. If your husband takes a beta blocker for his heart there is one that has a side affect that calms the tremors.
Gord had tremors in his hands before we knew what was wrong with him. I was thinking Parkinson's. Later, I was told they were myoclonic jerks. As they progressed, he had times when he would be lifting a glass to drink something and his hand would jerk so hard that he and/or I would be covered with whatever liquid. A neurologist told me that what I thought were tremors were very small myoclonic jerks.
DH just developed these very small myoclonic jerks of his hands over the past few months. Sometimes they are worse than other times. I think they are fairly common in most AD patients.
Ok, now that you mention it, I've read that myoclonic jerks are listed as common in PCA patients. (All AD, I guess, but I specifically read of it on a PCA paper.) This may be what we're seeing.
No, no change since '07 when he first started on Aricept and Namenda. Anyway, we've only noticed it a couple of short times, so if anything it's just the beginnings of something new.
bobby developed temors almost a year after the dx in 2007 then they turned in to the full myoclonic jecks as the dr said , we tried keppra at a very low dose but everytime we tried to up it to the normal dose he would start hallucinating . bobby is off everything now except for melatonin and a clonazepam at bedtime. this has been working so good for about a week. tonight he is very restless but this is the earliest i have every put him to bed but he had been awake almost all day. the hospice dr was out on thursday and wants us to retry the keppra since he no longer takes the exelon, namenda or the anti depressant. so monday we are to start back to see if it will easy the jerks off some and if anything is hallucinated it will be nice things like pretty little bunnies
My dh has had the myoclonic jerks for a couple of years. He has been on several different types of medication. He just jerks like that at night. He now is on divalprox sod 250 mg at night. His dr. increased it to two tablets every evening because after getting better for a while he started the jerking all over again only much worse. A couple of times it was almost like a seizure. His entire body was jerking. The first time it was very mild and only lasted for a few seconds. The second time it was like his entire body was jerking so hard it lifted him up off the bed and what woke me was his coming back down on the bed. It scared me to death.
I have noticed in the past months a number of things he does have gotten worse. Just waiting for a really bad shoe to fall.
Myoclonic jerks may occur alone or in sequence, in a pattern or without pattern. They may occur infrequently or many times each minute. Most often, myoclonus is one of several signs in a wide variety of nervous system disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), serotonin toxicity, and some forms of epilepsy. Some researchers indicate that jerks persistently may even cause early tremors. Found this on a med web site.
Lloyd had the myoclonic jerks so bad that he could fall 4-5 times in a single morning. Since he's been on Marinol and I cut his sleeping pill in half, the falls are greatly reduced. When I gave him NO sleeping pills, the myoclonis stopped completely. I just can't have him up all night so he needs something. With the sleeping pills, he was only bad in the morning right after he got up. As the day progressed, he would be fine.
This post really has nothing to do with jerks but a similar disorder.
My husband has been in NH for four months diagnosed with ALZ; oxygen dependent.
On two or three occasions during this time, he's had a day where he experienced a total inability to control his movements and mobility. Extreme shakiness. I would not describe them as "jerks" but a complete loss of muscle control. He's too "wobbly" to even stand against the bed. These episodes only last one day and the next day he'll be out of bed, back in his recliner and feeling much better. However, his appetite disappears for several days.
He recently gained 2 lbs but he ate nothing today and looked at his tray as though it were full of poison. When I can coax him into taking a bite, he just rolls the food around in his mouth and takes a long time to swallow. All symptoms of his past failure to eat.