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Hi Joan, Has anyone suggested the drug Apomorphine to you? This can be taken in conjunction with, or instead of, the normal L-Dopa preparations such as Sinement and Madopar. Not all Parkinsonians are suited to it, but when it works it tends to be very beneficial. Basically it is administered by injection (just under the skin) or by nasal spray. Because it is not digested in your stomach (like pills) the on/off cycle is not so pronounced. I have heard of some people using Apomorphine to provide an occasional "boost" to get them out of an "off" spot, although they rely on conventional pills for their normal dopamine replacement. Another nice thing about Apomorphine is that you require fewer other drugs to counteract the side effects of the anti-Parkinson drugs. This makes the overall drug regime a lot simpler. Apomorphine was recently approved here in the UK following trials of which my Mother was a part of. Mum had quite a high dose which was continuously infused via a pump, which gave a dose every few minutes. She did not take any L-Dopa drugs (like Sinemet or Madopar). Moving to Apomorphine was very good for us. I suggest you ask your Doctor about it - there must have been some write up in the medical journals somewhere. You might want to have a good look at the other drugs your husband is taking, as some drugs do not go well with PD, and sometimes doctors are unaware of these problems. Hope that's helpful, Simon Coles Note New Mail Address (and new Job!): [log in to unmask] (PS - I am not sure if it is "Apomorphine" or "Appomorphine". Spelling never was my strong point). _______________________________________________________________________________ >To: [log in to unmask](RFC-822)@INTERNET >From: [log in to unmask](RFC-822)@INTERNET on Wed, Aug 10, 1994 1:06 pm Subject: New Member introduction (fwd) Comments: To: parkinsn <[log in to unmask]> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 10 Aug 1994 12:35:16 -0500 (CDT) >From: yarborough joan <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] Subject: New Member introduction (Barbara, I have tried numerous times to get this through to Toronto and PARKINSN with no luck. If you receive this, please forward to "Multiple Recipients". Thanks.) As has been suggested, I would like to introduce myself, a silent member of about 2 weeks. I am the wife/principal caregiver of my husband, James. He is 65 and was diagnosed 4 years ago. His case has been called "atypical PD" and has not responsed to the usual treatments. He has not been able to tolerate Sinemet and has had extreme reactions in hallucinations and disorientation. After 2 years on Sinemet (trying every conceivable dosage and time schedule), he was taken off last summer (7 weeks hospitalization). Now after a year off, his PD has progressed extremely fast. He has been told that he is now at the point he should be in 20 years, instead of 4. We investigated the pallidotomy at Emory University Hospital, but were told that his case was not "classical" and he was not accepted for the project. So=8Awe are back at square 1, trying to tolerate a minute dose of Sinemet (and I might add, quite depressed about it all). My other PD connection is that I am volunteer editor for the monthly newsletter of the MIddle Tennessee APDA chapter and serve on the board of directors. (I hope I've done this right-I tried earlier, but no luck.)