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My husband, Dick, is in the hospital again for a non-PD problem. He was in for two days, out two days, and is now back in. During his first admission, his GP or the surgeon (not sure which) had already written an order allowing him to self-administer his PD meds, which we brought from home. That has been our standard request, and it has worked very well. At the time of his readmission, neither doctor remembered to write orders allowing self-administering the meds, so of course it wasn't allowed until one of the doctors came back in to change the orders. Here's the result: His evening Sinemet never arrived, nor did his sleeping pill. His sleeping pill was brought to him around 7 a.m., with his breakfast. This morning his 1.0 mg Mirapex was brought to him in the form of five .2 mg tablets. As of 11 a.m. today, he still hadn't received his morning Sinemet or his other meds. Fortunately, Dick wasn't in awful shape, because we'd brought in his meds, expecting him to be able to self-administer them again. He simply decided, when the meds didn't show up in a reasonable time, to take his own, without asking or informing anyone. His doctor did change the orders when he came in, thank goodness, so he can "legally" get his meds on time. Just thought I'd say once again that when a hospitalized PWP is mentally capable of taking his/her meds in the right quantity at the right time, it's a very good idea to ask the doctor to write orders allowing it. The "ons" and "offs" of PWPs are too delicately balanced to tolerate hospital timing of the meds. Margie Swindler, cg for Dick, 55/18