Mum showing signs of ? Parkinson's

[Blueuggboots]

My mum, who is 75, over the last 12-18 months has started to become increasingly frail.

She has no strength in her hands - she struggles to plug a seatbelt in or open a stiff door handle for example - and has developed a tremor in her forearms which makes eating/drinking difficult. The tremor can also randomly occur at rest. This also impacts her writing.

She has always been a "faller" in that she often used to trip over and fall even when younger but has clocked up about 8 falls in as many months, fortunately all with minor injuries.

She is cognitively not too bad but does get a little muddled at times.

She also as I lost her sense of smell years ago but put this down to medication she was prescribed but I've read this can be a very early sign of Parkinson's.

She's spoken to a neurologist and has a CT scan later this month. The neurologist mentioned Parkinson's disease but had not been able to examine my Mum face to face as the neurologist was self isolating on the day of the appointment.

Do any of you have experience with the early stages of Parkinson's and do any of the above statements ring a bell?

My Mum had Parkinsons.
She had a noticeable shuffle when she walked and tended to veer off her path in a diagonal direction
She also lost facial reaction and looked deadpan all the time
Then there's the stiffness. Hers was quite mild and tremors were noticeable but well controlled with medication. She never had a good sense of smell
There are videos on you tube showing the Parkinsons shuffle. We knew straight away after watching them. That was before diagnosis.
It never caused her to fall. Her brother and sister were affected far more than my Mum was and they didn't fall although it did affect their grip. Cognitively unaffected.
Good luck.

My dad had Parkinson’s. The tremor was the symptom that led him to go to his GP, which led to his diagnosis and the shuffle and “mask” face came soon after. He was only 50 when he was diagnosed. Good luck going forward OP.