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I think it is a person's decision how faithfully you follow the  "don't  go off meds without telling your doctor" warning.

My experience with chemo for ovarian cancer was that following doctor's orders meant 2 seizures and 2 gigantic hematoma's instead of one.
I became allergic to chemo alkeran after 8 rounds and suffered a very bad reaction while taking it with food in a restaurant.  Allergic to shrimp (which I have eaten all my life and still eat) was doc's conclusion so I had to take it again and ended up in the ER again.  Leukeran gave me hematoma but dermatologist decided it was caused by pants I was wearing so I got another giant hematoma.  They finally lied to me about ultra sound revealing a mass, so I had 2nd look surgery.  My surgeon told me he was  "skeptical" about the ultra sound.

I was young and obedient in those days and liked my doctors at Good Samaritan in LA California and felt that to get treatment I must follow protocol current in those times 1979-80.  But if I had it to do over I never would have had chemo as the cancer was encapsulated.

Since then my knowledge about medical treatments and medicines has increased greatly and I think that in some ways I am a better judge of what is good for me than someone who sees me once or twice a year for 15 minutes.

However, there seems to be more than one type of patient:  the kind who feels comfortable following orders and the kind who wants the doctor/patient relationship to be more of a partnership.  I think you have to decide which kind you are and take it from there.

Chemo, like PD meds, is powerful and dangerous.  From the responses I got re dosage for carbo/levo, it appears folks have worked out what is best for them.  Because of my chemo experience, I was terrified of trying Sinemet for the first time, but was surprised by it.  It just never seemed to help after the first dose.  Weird.

Ray

Rayilyn Brown
Director AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation
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