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I apologize to all of you that recieved my incomplete, half-written message earlier. Not only am I new to this Parkinson stuff, I am not very computer savvy. Sorry! Let me try this again: Hi! am 46 years old. I have been symptomatic for 3 years or so and was diagnosed with PD a year ago. I can't believe how much my life has, and still is changing. I see a good local neurologist, and I also see a specialist at Duke University Medical Center. I started on Selegiline, 5mg 1xday when I was diagnosed. I also started on Requip and the dose was slowly titrated up over several months. At 3mg 3xday I was still battling the tremors, stiffness and slowness. I wasn't functioning at a very high level, but I was also so overwhelmed by the wretched side effects of the Requip (nausea, fatigue and drowsiness) that I just couldn't handle any more. I made the decision with my doctor at Duke to start on Sinemet CR 25/100. That has been titrated up to 1 tablet 3xday and we are holding there. I still walk somewhat like a turtle, I am still stiff, my legs especially seem to ache all the time. The tremors are much better ,except when I get stressed or under pressure. To sum it all up, between the symptoms of the PD and the side effects of the medicine I feel sorta 'yucky' all the time. I just can't seem to keep up with things; I don't think my brain is quite processing things at it's normal rate; it seems to take a lot of energy just to think through things, and having more than 1 or 2 things on my plate at a time can just really stress me out. Now please understand. I am not trying to whine here. I have accepted this disease. I am blessed to have a great husband who is very supportive, my kids ( 3 boys, 10, 13 and 17) are handling things great, and I have a great supportive group of other family and friends. I think laughter is the best medicine and I use it a lot to deal with all this. I am frustrated though because I don't know anyone else around my age who is dealing with this and sometimes I just feel like I am going crazy. I tell myself I need to just "buckle up" and get on with life as normal, but by the time I get up, get the kids off to school, get dressed and get ready to tackle the day, I am worn out! So I give it the "old college try", and go on, but with my brain and my body rmoving in slow gear, I never seem to accomplish the things on my "to do" list by the end of the day. I can't keep up with anything and hence the frustration So, to make this long story somewhat shorter, before you all get tired of reading this, let me ask you. Does this sound familiar to any of you? Do I sound crazy? Do any of you feel as if your whole life is changing? Is this fatigue normal? Do you feel like your brain operates in slow motion, or is it just mine? And the medicines! Sometimes I feel like the side effects of the medicine are as 'yucky' as the symptoms of the PD. But then I go without my medicine for a while (I tried that once) and I think, maybe not. So if anyone out there has any words of wisdom to share, I'm listening! Debra ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn