Hi Lindy,

Happy Easter to you as well, and thank you for the reply.

I consider myself to be a very observant person, and I do feel that since she has been on the IR and ER combination, that she appears to be in almost the same condition that she was before we saw a neuro and before she started medication.

However, there are some days that are better than others, as I am sure all PD patients have. Yesterday and today her voice was very weak. Sometimes it always sounds as if she has a scratchy thought, almost as if when you are sick and are troubled with that "tickle" feeling in the throat. However, I must say that in the past few weeks she has been attempting physical acts that she typically would not have attempted prior to starting medication. For example, this morning she and I made a green bean casserole to have for Easter lunch. This required that some large, fairly heavy cans of mushroom soup be placed underneath a can opener, and obviously required the can opener to open the cans. She was able to do this herself; the only thing she required assistance with was removing the can from the can opener after it had been opened.

She has also made comments that she can "feel" when, for example, a morning dosage of medication is wearing off around lunch time. To me, this must mean that she is feeling some type of relief while on the medication.

As her son, I simply really want to see her back to the way she was on the first week of the IR medication. Such a stronger, more emotional voice and facial expression, and overall a much more positive attitude. My father told me she had a really bad day this week which was sparked by an article she read in the local paper about Parkinson's. She made the comment to my father that she is "doomed". I just looked at the electronic copy of the article via the Internet, and it simply mentioned some of the progressive symptoms that patients may realize. She is already aware of the potential symptoms because I have printed many articles and Wikipedia information for her. Perhaps she was simply feeling a bit depressed this week, and the article was simply "pouring salt in the wound".

I will be taking the 26th of April off from work to attend the neuro appointment to express my concerns and observations since she has been on the IR and ER forms of the medication. She has been on medication for around 2 full months now, and I realize that this takes time.

One other concern of mine is some of the things I have been hearing about the long term affects of taking levodopa. Some argue that the levodopa is actually what may cause the disease to be progressive, and that it can show immediate relief of some PD symptoms, but in the long run it may actually be starving the brain of dopamine itself.

Thanks,

Matt