Hello everyone,

I've been keeping myself busy with work and school stuff. It sure has been pretty out there with the fall colors. I went canoing with my brother yesterday and the water was like glass and like a painting with the trees reflecting off the surface. He was catching fish and I was enjoying the scenery.

Physically things could be better. I went to the Sleep Doc for the follow-up on my sleep study. He put me on Klonipin for the PLM/RSD, but the medication made me ill. The 0.5mg was too much for me and I tried 1/2 pill that worked for a bit, but that was not enough and the whole 0.5mg made my eyeballs twitch! I ended up discussing this with my neurologist on Friday. She's a good sport because that was her day off and was nice enough to call me again later in the day to see how I was doing. I feel bad bothering her at home like that. So needless to say, I'm off the Klonipin and now wait for it to titrate out of my system.

I saw her today and she noticed that I'm slowing down more physically. I've noticed it myself as things take me longer to do. Mentally I'm slower too which I hate. I find myself forgetting how to spell, getting words mixed up and forgetting whole thoughts a paragraph later. This is fun when trying to write papers and IT proposals.

I've also had nasty bouts of nausea from the Sinemet. I seem to have an absorption problem now. This is frustrating because I find that I am going off more often with dystonia in my feet and hands getting worse. My left hand cramps up terribly at night and sometimes during the day. I've actually bruised my hand.

The feet get me at night and I end up with a Parcopa for that which helps. The dyskinesias seem to be happening now too about mid-point in the dose. Not all the time, but enough to be annoying. No one else has noticed them so far which is good. I've been able to hide them from view when it happens. She prescribed so Lodisyn for the nausea. She says this is pure Carbodopa to help carry more of the Levodopa past the BBB.

Overall I've been sore as well. My bicep muscles feel like I've been punched with them worse first thing in the morning, but just slightly sore the rest of the day as the Sinemet works its way through my system.

The piano playing on the otherhand has been wonderful. Whatever Sinemet I am taking is making my hands work like wonders on most days. I can't complain here. Now if it will work for the rest of the body... I'd feel a lot better!

What is it with the eyesight? My brand new glasses don't seem to work as well anymore. My double vision is worse and now the overall eyesight has dropped down a notch again so everything is blurred glasses and all. I can't wear them while playing the piano because they are multifocals. They make my head spin if I move my eyes around too much. So when I'm playing, the glasses go on to read something and they go off when I play. I need them for ornaments and fingering because the numbers and symbols can be pretty small on some scores - about the size of an ant footprint as I've said to some people.

Anyway...

Steve, I'm sorry to hear about your friend. Hopefully he'll return. The four days in rehab are not enough as you know. I hope he didn't take the syringes on you.

DBiker, good luck with your PT. I'm glad you're feeling better. We too have had some frost up here. The fields have gone from green to yellow and the lillypads have shrunk down to little fragments in the ponds. The autmn in New England is as pretty as it is in the Northwest. The smell of spice in the air from the leaves is a reminder sadly that colder weather is coming.

Evonne, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. I've been interviewing too for a new job. Things are tight in the IT world, but the interviews are going well. At one place that liked me, but the higher-up manager wanted to bring on board a temporary worker that was there for months instead. The HR person told me to reapply again for another opening when they show up on the web. I have two other places that will get back to me and hopefully soon.

And this is the way it goes, we continue to trudge along trying to be normal, yet fighting every day to be normal.

I hope everyone has a great week.

John