Briefly.... because I need to go do errands... I have been through the same with my dad (who is almost 76). It started a year or two before my mom died; all of a sudden he just seemed _old_. And after she died, well, he became even older. You saw him at my wedding; he's doing much better now (thanks to Helen and viagra!) ... and, I am more used to thinking of him as "old" now.
There were some other issues which might also be relevant for your father: medication interactions, and depression. It took a long time to work out the right combination of medications that would control some of my dad's Parkinson's-like symptoms and also keep his mood more stable, without putting him into a stupor and also while helping him maintain normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels. During that long period of trial and error, he lost his driver's license for several months, which made him even more depressed.
_but_ as it turned out, things did get better for him. And, as I said above, I really had to shift my perceptions of him and get used to the fact that he _is_ old, and he _is_ somewhat frail.
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Date: 2002-09-21 09:11 am (UTC)There were some other issues which might also be relevant for your father: medication interactions, and depression. It took a long time to work out the right combination of medications that would control some of my dad's Parkinson's-like symptoms and also keep his mood more stable, without putting him into a stupor and also while helping him maintain normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels. During that long period of trial and error, he lost his driver's license for several months, which made him even more depressed.
_but_ as it turned out, things did get better for him. And, as I said above, I really had to shift my perceptions of him and get used to the fact that he _is_ old, and he _is_ somewhat frail.