Hi again Ervin....you wrote:

>>Julie, thank you for your response.  I'm curious to know how long he's
>>been taking the two drugsand the >>reactions if any.  Which one was first
>>taken and did the second drug help?how long had he been >>diagnosed.?
>>there has been so much controversy about Eldepyrl.As yet I have not start
>>any drugs even >>though I was prescribed Mirapex. I guess I'm still
>>waiting on reports.  Best wishes    ERVIN J >>MCCARTHY
>><[log in to unmask]>

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My husband had had a physical in Dec '97 (he didn't tell me, but it was
because he was worried about how he was feeling--thought he might have MS
or something).  His physical came back with everything just great.  I had
noticed over the past 5-6 years that his personality had changed, but
thought it was mid-life crisis.  Then over the winter, I started noticing
that he was moving slower, started to hold one shoulder higher than the
other and gradually stopped swinging his arms when he walked and stooped.
A few times I saw a tremor in his hands, but he said it was probably just
because he had too much coffee.  Finally I talked to our family physician
and asked him to see Dan again as Dan had not told him of his symptoms at
the time of his physical.  We met with him in May when he diagnosed PD.  We
went to Billings, Montana to a neurosurgon the first of June to confirm it.
He did.  He started my husband with the handy little packet from Requip
(Ropinerole)....I am being a little sarcastic here, because the neuro
turned out to not have any experience with someone my husband's age (turned
50 in April).  So he just gave us the packet of 3 week supply and told us
to come back in 3 weeks.  He told us that Dan should feel symptomatic
relief in 3-5 days!!  After my research in the internet about Requip, I
found that the packet is only to titrate a person to make sure they can
tolerate the medacine....it is NOT theropudic dosage (but our neuro didn't
know that).  The packet starts out at .25mg 3xday for one week, .5mg 3xday
for the next week and .75mg 3xday the third week.  We went back and he was
very concerned that Dan had not improved...was going to put him on
Sinnemet, but I balked at that.  Then I confronted him with the fact that
on the studies, patients didn't feel symptomatic relief until about 7-9
weeks into the medication and at an average doseage of 7-8mg a day.  He was
not pleased with me.  I asked him about Elepryl (since I had seen that this
was usually the first medication prescribed for early on-set PD by most of
the literature I read).  He told us to wait a minute....then he disappeared
for 10-15 minutes.  When he came back, he brought in a sample of Eldepryl
and said he had confered with is collegue and wanted him to start taking
5mg at breakfast and noon along with increasing his Requip.  At this point,
we decided we needed to find a doctor that knew what he was doing...one who
had some experience.  We continued on the medications and my husband had
settled at 9mg a day on the Requip.  He was feeling much better and his
symptoms had been relieved to a great extent....but he was still very
anxious.  We went to the Parkinson's Institue in Sunnyvale, CA in August
and saw Dr. Petzinger (movement disorder specialist).  She told us that the
medacines Dan was taking were good ones, although she probably would have
put him on Mirapex had he come to her first.  Her reasons were that you had
to take less of Mirapex (he is taking 1.5 3xday). She also said it has a
natural antidepressant feature to the medication.  We decided to switch
because of the anxiety that Dan was still dealing with.  She also told us
that at this stage of the disease that almost any medication will bring
symptomatic relief....it is just as the disease progresses, it get's harder
and harder to figure out the medications.  Dan's anxiety has been helped
greatly!!  He has more patience and is doing more in the last month or so
than he has done in the last 3-4 years.  He can NOT miss a single dose,
tho, or he gets extremely shakey and feels terrible.  When on his
medications (1.5mg Mirapex 3xday and 5mg Eldepryl 2xday--he also takes Vit
E, C, Co-enzymeQ-10 and meltonin when sleep is a problem) he feels very
normal without symptoms.  His early symptoms are more on the rigidity side
than the tremor side at this point. He has not had ANY side effects with
Requip, Mirapex or Eldepryl.  How long this will last, we don't know, but
we are going to make the best of it while we have it this good.  There is
no way of knowing if the Eldepryl helped as we stared it 3 weeks after
starting the Requip, but since things are working, my husband does not want
to experiment by dropping one....he prefers to stay with both.

I hope that this information is helpful to you.  Each person reacts
differently, but for our part....Dan has only had positive benefits from
taking the dopamine agonist.

With warmest regards,

Juelie McLean CG/Dan 50 dx98