My husband (of 6 years) is in his late 60's. He was diagnosed with MCI of an unknown origin last spring, by a neurologist. He is having the comprehensive 4 hour cognitive exam in April. My husband's grandfather had Parkinson's and I noticed the neuro asking him a lot of questions that I later realized were Parkinson's related. For many months now he has been suffering with a very "stiff" back for which PT has done little to help. This has NOT been diagnosed as being related to Parkinson's but it may be another piece of the puzzle. He does not have a constant or blatant "tremor" but he rubs his thumb and index finger together when his left hand is not "busy" and when he is resting...such as watching TV...his feet are never still...they move around constantly. He is Romberg positive. He also has issues with short term memory that is getting worse. His long term memory appears fine. Do patients with Parkinson's also suffer cognitive impairment or are these two completely separate issues? As I said, he has not been diagnosed with anything except MCI at this point but I am told that they will also speak with me at the long exam and I am wondering what may be significant to mention to them.
Daddy has Parkinson's, it took YEARS to correctly dx him. He had the usual, tremoring and stiffness--but those are also mimicked in MS and other diseases.
Don't worry yourself unnecessarily. When you have the final dx, you can then cope with what lies ahead. MCI in and of itself is annoying, but most people do eventually have some form of it--I'm only 63 and I forget things I did yesterday. I'm fine, but my brain is on overload all the time.
Good luck to you and hubby!
Also, if a person is diagnosed later in life the disease progresses much slower than a person diagnosed younger in life such as Michael J. Fox.
You really need a thorough work up by his neurologist to have an accurate account of his condition.