I never mean to give medical advice, this is a conversation you should consider having with your medical team. I can only talk about what I have seen with my husband and share our experiences which may or may not be the same as yours. What I can say is that when my husband catches a virus, it often looks totally different from what I would expect. We often don’t see the virus but an uptick in his symptoms. The explanation his doctors have given is that when his body has to redirect energy to fight the infection, PD takes advantage of it and comes out to play.

We have been dealing with this recently. I had a mild chest infection and a few days later my husband woke up very dizzy. The only explanation I could think of was that he might have caught the virus from me. He didn’t present with the congestion I had, but instead his Parkinson’s flared up. His speech was impacted, his brain seemed a bit fuzzier and he needed to use his walker for a couple of days. I called his Primary Care Physician and her office suggested that I watch him and if he did have any difficulty breathing we should head to Urgent Care. Thankfully that didn’t happen and he is now on the mend.

I need to be aware of any behavioral changes that take place because they may indicate something going haywire internally. It is said that viral infections are the number one cause of increases in symptoms for People with Parkinson’s. When things change, especially those overnight changes, I need to reach out to his doctors so they can figure out what is really happening and treat the infection within, not what I am seeing on the outside.