Hello Folks;
I’m on the board most days and thought it time to introduce myself. I’m having a better day after several weeks of drug adjustment hell. My neuro put me on Comtan 200 mgs TID to extend the usefulness of Carbadopa & L-Dopa 100/25 of which I was taking 6-7 tabs a day along with Zantac 150mg BID, Requip .50mg TID, Alertec 100mg morning and lunch and Trazodone 50mg at bedtime. With the introduction of Comtan I reduced the Carbadopa & L-Dopa by 1/3 which was recommended. After a couple of weeks the shaking didn’t stop so I reinstated the missing Carbadopa & L-Dopa 100/25s. After the 3rd Comtan was added I broke out into a rash on my face and neck and minor hives on my extremities. Comtan has been discontinued. I haven’t driven the car for more than 3 days in the last month as I didn’t trust my abilities.

People often ask me when did I first know that I had PD. There were signs long before I was diagnosed in 2001. From 93-97, I’d gone back to university and lived with my Grandmother and she noticed the tremor in my left hand when I would fall asleep on the couch. I dismissed the tremor as just too many one-nighters and general college fatigue. One hot day in the summer of 2000, when carrying a glass of coke out to the porch, my hand spontaneously opened and the glass smashed at my feet. That same week I was on the roof helping a neigbour snap chalk lines for laying shingles and he was concerned that my balance wasn’t what it should be. I was afraid I had MS and my doc was sure it must be essential tremor b/c at 38 she thought I was too young for PD. – with my insistence she sent me to a neurologist. He didn’t even have to wait for the MRI and was more upset than I was when he told me it was Parkinson’s disease. I was relieved, in a sense, because I knew what I had and I had my sanity.

Up until now the medications have served my well, barring the usual side-effects. I had no drug coverage for the $3600.00 plus/yr expenses, but was gainfully employed working contract after contract for the local provincial government. It’s only during the last year that rolling tremor started bouncing my hands off the keyboard in “off times” that know no schedule. I’ve reluctantly made the decision last week not to go back to work at this time and I have many mixed feelings on that front. The job offers still come in, but everything in my line (mostly writing) requires typing on demand – I can’t say hold on, my drugs will kick in, in a little while, to the person who needs what they need yesterday. The last drug I tried for tremor was Cogentin and you would have thought I put on somebody else’s glasses by mistake – my vision was so fuzzed out that I couldn’t read a thing. I’ve come to the point where a lot of drugs just don’t agree with me or they don’t make much appreciable difference. I met with the neuro-surgeon and his assistant last month and since tremors, dyskenesia and dystonia are my main symptoms they felt DBS to be a good option. The only problem remaining is the wait-list; they can’t do it until September 2008. The end of October I go for my preliminary DBS assessments and that is pretty much where I am at for the moment. I’m hopeful that DBS will help me regain the fluidity of typing and that I will be back to work soon after the surgery and subsequent tweaking.
Best regards, Guy