Dear Friends,
Now that my Daddy has gotten to "know" you better through your
poems, messages, etc., he's feeling more comfortable about asking a
question. He wants to know if anyone experiences a reoccurring problem with
breathlessness.
He is 76 years old, with PD for about 8 years. During this last
year, he began to suffer from severe, debilitating dyskinesias when his
Sinemet-CR began to wear off. His neurologist took him off the CR
completely. Now his dosages are:
8:00 a.m. 25/100 Sinemet
12:00 Noon 25/100 Sinemet
4:00 p.m. 25/100 Sinemet
9:00 a.m. 1 5-mg. Eldepryl
About the third hour after taking each dosage of Sinemet, he starts to have
a mild dyskinesia (feet and hands twitching--uncomfortably, but not
painfully), which is accompanied by breathlessness--a frustrating, almost
frightening sense of not being able to breathe. This
twitching/breathlessness lasts an hour or so until his next dose of Sinemet
kicks in. Since he doesn't take anything after 4:00 p.m., his nighttime
breathlessness often lasts much longer than an hour.
Is this a normal, expected side effect of the wearing off of medication,
and/or a normal part of dyskinesia? Does anyone else experience the
breathlessness? And has anyone found relief for this problem? I would
appreciate hearing of your experiences.
Thanks!
Lucy Hartley
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