Jim,

I'm new to this road, but I understand your frustration. I take only a handful of medications now, but I count them out each morning for the entire day. I have one of those little metal canisters that I keep in my pocket along with my nail clippers. I keep any eye on the clock since I'm on an every 3-hour schedule until bedtime.

I know how many I'm supposed to take and at what time. When the pills are gone, it's time for bed. The seperate container also helps me to remember if I took a pills or pill, or even worse got side-tracked because of the long period in between doses. The other thing too this gets rid of the doubt I get with the "Did I take it or didn't I?" with the full bottles of medication, which make it difficult to count out the daily dosages. When my can is empty. That's it for the day.

I agree with Jaye on the absorbtion issue. I found I need a good empty stomach in order to absorb my medication. I also take it with a full glass of water -not a swig to wash the pills down - a full 8 oz. glass of water. This helps with the nausea and the amount of time the medication takes to turn me from a tin man in the morning to an almost human being.

Regarding your current neuro, I would shop around for another one. This character sounds like he's on an ego trip more than anything else, and likes to put the patients down. When I went from my first neuro to my current one at Lahey, I documented my history in a word document. This was very helpful for her and she used this as a basis to start her treatment for me. Periodically I update it as best I can. It keeps track of my current medication as well as changes in symptoms and improvements, and give a copy to her for her records.

Remember you also need to push the medical community to do what's right. Right now they are driven by profit and insurance coverage. Insurance companies will fight tooth and nail to hold up treatment and medication for someone because it costs money. The actual doctor just wants to do his or her job, but they too have to justify any treatments not only to the management of the clinic, but also to the insurance companies themselves. So if you don't fit the 20 minute or less slot, you're thrown out with the diagnosis that "Everything is in your head. Go on happy pills and get over it."

We are looking for help, and are not doing them a favor by being at the clinic. Do they really think we like taking time off from work, losing our jobs, relationships, etc. because we are chronically ill? A lot of these so-called medical professionals have no clue what it's like. To them we're another bit of profit going into the coffers that they can suck out of us and the insurance companies.

If you don't speak up, they'll walk all over you and treat you like garbage. I found this out twice. The first was with thyroid cancer. I was told I had a lump and went for tests. No big deal...Then a biopsy that showed that the lump was suspicious of mixed-papollary follicular carcinoma. Well I got quite upset and talked to my primary care doctor. He said that there's nothing to worry about, and wanted to push the surgery out a year or so. No way, I wanted it out, and the hospital removed 1/2 of the thyroid. My PC doctor later on conceded that this was the best thing I could have done when I did. The tumor was benign but was changing he told me, and if I hadn't had it removed when I did, I'd end up losing the whole thyroid. Go figure...

The second time was with my PD journey. In 2005 I finally ended up with a neurologist. He diagnosed me, without any tests, as having focal distonia because I played the piano. No matter what I told him, he made up his mind. This initial visit lasted maybe 13 minutes tops, and I walked out more confused than helped. After he messed up one of his reports to my PC, I got my referral over to Lahey where I am now. My current neuro told me it was a good thing that I didn't go for the botox treatments that the first neuro insisted that I needed and I refused.

As my mom told me. "You are your own person and you know your body more than anyone else. If there's something wrong and you know it, it's best to get it checked out and try your best to find the right doctor to do it"

Having said this, I recommend that you contact a teaching clinic or hospital. They are willing to spend more time with you, the patient that needs care, than the local clinic that only worries how many patients it can crank through the turnstiles in a day. My primary care doctor told me this as I switched from the local neurological clinic to the more professionally run Lahey Clinic - one of the best health care institutions in the US today.

John