Fiona,

I am not even going to ask what the heck the wire was for..........As for the 60's and recreation drugs I may have given the impression I did not experience the 'White Rabbit' which of course I did, that was the whole point.

Bonnie

Charlie,

I see your point as well. Like Paula said, and others, it is a two sided coin.

Bonnie

I could not let this opportunity to add the thoughts of my addled brain to the fray. In defence of the side of this argument that declares we live in a free country and are therefore operating under the "freedom to choose" banner, I must say that I agree. Ignorance is not a defense. And if it were we'd be in serious trouble. I take mirapex, and I see some behaviours that I know are compulsive, and I do believe I have reached the max dose of this particular drug that I can handle without going over the edge. I am a sugar junkie, and a shoe junkie. However I know myself well enough to know that those are weak links in my peronality...and there are probably more. Those are my weaknesses, and have always been there. This drug simply highlights them, and enhances them.

As a counterbalance I also have a solid foundation upon which my life is built. Call it my belief system, or my philosophy of life or whatever. When I find myself getting off track I know what I need to do to get back on track. Keeping a journal of my behaviors is a great tool. (Here come the journal lecture....) We may be a crazy lot, but we are not stupid. Keeping a record of what I do from day to day has been an incredible asset to monitor my own patterns, feeling and behaviors. As we age, and get further down the road most of us cannot even remember what we did yesterday. But a record of what we did yesterday, and the day before can show emerging patterns. Then we can see that we have a problem before it gets out of control, and look at likely causes.

We live in a society that will steal anything it can from us. We MUST assume personal responsibility to survive .Mirapex is not an evil drug, but it does have the capacity to release demons that reside in (all of) us. Know your demons! Learn from your experience, and the experience of others. Build yourself a solid foundation of high end values and then work like hell to live it. Any Questions?

Personally I think the guy must have had a few bucks left over after his gambling spree. because he obviouly got himself one hot lawyer to get that kind of settlement.

Rosebud

I, too, was compulsive on Mirapex -- although it was fairly "benign." It was working on the computer - photoshop to be precise. Day and night - I was always creating something.

I finally titrated off Mirapex and got my brain back. Now I'm back on it - at a VERY low dose.

But you also wrote something that is key for all pwp:
We MUST assume personal responsibility to survive .

It's easy to play the blame game and complain about drugs, or the disease, or that others are not doing enough, or whatever. Yep there is bad stuff out there. We need to be mindful and careful.

But for me the bottom line is that we all need to assume personal responsibility for ourselves in order to survive.

not to be offended because it's human nature for many to judge.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The only people that can understand what I go through on a daily basis are other breast cancer survivors. The same analogy can be applied here. And so, I will have to tell myself, that the only people that can understand what I go through on a daily basis because of the negative effects of Mirapex, are the ones that were affected like I was.

Personal responsibility is a two-way street. The drug companies have a personal responsibility to right the wrong THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR.

I hope I didn't judge, because it doesn't change anything. I am worried a little about how we will be "punished" for their [industry] mistake, if you get my drift. Don't mean to judge.

gotta take a break,
paula

No worries Paula. "They" could have avoided all of this with a two cent warning sticker on the prescription bottle. "They" chose not to. Should we be sheeple because they are pulling all the strings?

It's just a little disheartening when fellow parkies, who suffer daily with this insidious disease, have no empathy for their brothers or sisters who have had to deal with financial burdens, on top of everything else, through no fault of their own.

Please don't go anywhere. You are valued and I respect your opinion.

Oh heck yeah - unfortunately I"ve run into that problem with other pwp issues. This is the first forum I've seen actually try to deal with differences of opinion in a better way and I hope it continues....thanks....you have had it rough. Who needs breast cancer and Parkinson's? But you have to cope and you do. It stinks tho.

paula

hey. So sorry so many of you were victims of Mirapex. I just reluctantly started once-a-day ER Requip, so that Stalevo wouldn't have to be upped anymore, to reduce bad dystonia.. I've avoided agonists thus far, since they made me so sleepy back in '99-2001 that I gave them up, to avoid falling asleep on my therapy clients. And too much Provigil makes me jumpy.
. So who has bad Requip stories? I'd like to go in with open eyes. Supplementing with mucuna and glutathione, but still....not sure I should go up on my initial 2 mg. of Requip, to 4 mg., which I was supposed to start today.
I go to Cape Cod on vacation for our family's annual 2 weeks tomorrow. That should at least make me feel a bit better. Still, it's my first time there as a truly disabled person: no longer driving everybody everywhere and being an independent bi-ped will be really hard. These days I use a walker even when I'm "on," and need a "chaperone" everywhere in case I switch "off," which happens five or six times a day. This sucks, is all I can say. Still, I know I'll be trying to do my underwater bicycling every day in the freshwater ponds and on the bay with my purple styrofoam noodle. And reading on the beach.
Have fun stirring up trouble in Atlanta, my friends! Leonore

No horror stories but thought the data might help. I've been on it since diagnosis in 2000 with no problems other than sleepiness. I am currently taking 24 mg daily which is the max recommended but I have self-prescribed as high as 32 mg daily. I am unusually tolerant of it and trust it more than I do sinemet (which is kind of like saying that I trust Bush more than Cheney ).