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David, I am sorry about your wife. This is a rotten disease to have at this stage of your life , as all of us know so well. I hope your wife will join our list. I think the support could be really good for her. Some doctor's do hold to the premise that delaying sinemet for as long as possible is the best thing. Fom personal experience I say that the decision of when to start on Sinemet is a personal one and depends on many things including the severity of symptoms and your personal circumstances, such as having 2 small children. When first diagnosed a little over a year ago, I started on Requip, which is very similar to Mirapex. After several months of increasing doses, i was still suffering from lots of symptoms and dying from the side effects of the Requip. The Movements Disorder Specialist I see, put me on Sinemet CR and it has made a world of difference. For me I wanted to feel better now and I was not willing to sacrifice a buch of 'todays' while I had 3 children at home, for possible better tomorrows, years from now that I was not guaranteed anyway. Just remember David, there is no perfect way to treat this disease and ultimately your wife has to decide what is best for her. Requip and Mirapex both have lots of side effects, so read up on it. Some people handle it great but you need to know what the contrindications are, especially with respect to driving. I have learned that I cannot, or rather won't take the risk, of driving for 11/2 - 2 hours after i take each dose of Requip because of the drowsiness. So i have to plan my driving around my meds. which can be rather challenging at times. The rate of progression of the disease varies for each person. Just deal with it a day at a time. If your wife is wrking she may need to revisit that decision. Stress makes the disease worse and for me the stress of working and trying to be a wife and mom was wearing me out. I felt like i had only a cupful of energy for each day, and if I spent that at work then I cmae home with nothing to give my family. The real key is balance. I have learned to say no to lots of things which has been very hard. I have learned to look at my life, figure out the things I am passionate about and spend my energy on those things. I still lead a very rewarding life, and so can your wife, but it is a very different life and a much smaller world than I had before. Don't know if this helps any. Like I said, everyone is different. But we are all in this together and i think you and your wife will be encouraged by this list. Debra ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Held" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2002 5:53 PM > Hello to all. I am a new member to the list and I'm new > to the role of Care Giver. My wife, who is 44, was just > diagnosed with PD. She has just started Mirapex. We have > 2 small children and my wife is freaking out that she > will be unable to care for them in a few years. In my > readings to date, I have not seen any info regarding the > rate of the disease, how well the symtoms are suppressed > via medications. > > We meet with the doctor next week to answer questions, > so I'd like to be as informed going in as I can. I've > looked at the major PD websites. I have read that > delaying taking Sinomet as long as possible is a good > way to go. Any help would be appreciated. > -- > David > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn