I have reached "critical mass" and my sinemet is doing strange things. It has been for years, but I've just chalked it up to "that's life with PD. HOWEVER I believe the Duck is right, and we stop producing our own dopamine as we generously supply our brains with a free meal (remember there is NO free lunch!!) Latley I've required high doses of sinemet ,preferably the quick release yellow stuff, with no dyskinesia but blood sugar readings all over the map. To make a long story short I went to Emerg at the hospital yesterday and I looked like a junkie in withdrawl... by the way, in spite of the high dosage (200/50 every two hours, and adrenaline running the biggest party of my life inside my body) I did not have any dyskinesia!!!! I knew I was headed for a crash. The sane Doctor at the ER told me....your just gonna have to sit this out because there is no antidote. Fortunatley it has a short half life. He gave me a dose of Atavan and was surprised to see how little effect it had on my shakes. As the sinemet wore itself out I came down off the ceiling and they sent me home. But I still had to take some sinemet to get me mobile again. He said to use my benzodiazapines anywhere I can substitute them for the shakes, rather than takeing another sinemet... untill I can get to a Neurologist and he sent a referral for me. I came home and slept for 18 hours. Woke up relativley calm and trying to stay that way. My system is super sensitive to any kind of glucose and I am eating protien which is sometimes working for me and sometimes working against me. I believe I am addicted to sinemet. I believe the severe shaking is withdrawl when it wears off. The more we take the more we need. Untill we crash and crashing can come in a variety of ways as Viki's story illustrates. We have different kinds of PD but take the levodopa. I think my body or my brain is turning the sinemet into adrenalin for whatever reason I'm not sure. This whole thing has come about because I started taking my blood sugars and began to correlate some of my readings with stuff I'd read here and with my own record book. The whole staff at the ER were amazed by my creative charting and commentary of what was happening to me. The Dr. talked to me like I had a brain (even if it was in distress mode) and said "we don't know what to do with you...we have never seen this before and we don't know much about PD". He even took the time to read my letters that I keep in a binder from my various Neurological visits. I'm telling you...keep a record of what meds you take and when and the results. I believe I'm strong willed enough to get myself out of this hole, but I know it's going to take a while. Our bodies are incredibly resiliant but we have to learn to manage our minds. When we panic we're toast. In the back of my head I keep thinking about what the pharmacy business is really all about... that's why we just keep producing more medications. If your going to produce a drug you need to have a clientelle! I've really got my shirt in a knot about this, and I want some answers. I'll let you know how the story progresses. But first I have to find a GP who keeps his pen in his pocket and will talk to me about what is happening. It may take a while.. I think one awnser is to develop meditation techniques for the rough stuff. Levodopa may be a friend we'd be well advised to keep a close eye on..... More later. JW