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I am retired due to my disability - Parkinsons disease. I was diagnosed about 10 1/2 yrs ago. I am currently taking Sinement 25-100 mg, Sinemet CR 50-200mg, Eldepryl, and Mirapex. Generally, my medication works well most of the time (approx.75-80%), but I do experience apprx 4-5 "off" periods during which I am rendered nearly immobile. These periods are associated with digestion of food and the wearing off my medication. I began taking the Mirapex, in place of Permax, about 41/2 weeks ago. I have been on the dosage that my Neurologit feels will be the best for me.(I am under the care of Dr.s Koller, Pahwa, and Miyawaki at the Universtiy of Kansas Medical Center]. I have also had two electrical stimulators impanted in my brain (in the Goblus Paldias (sp?) region. I was th first person in the US to under go this procedure. (surgery was done in Oct '95). I have had mix results with the Mirapex. I seem to be moving better in my "on" periods and my"off" periods a not lasting as long. But I have had real severe problems while sleeping. I have experienced the inability to get to sleep, severe distonai in my left leg, vivid dreaming; and axniety attacks. I have begun to lower the amounts of the other parkinson drugs I am taking, That seems to be helping , although my problems still exist, they are becoming more manageable.. I spend my time painting, writing poetry and generally creating. I have enclosed is a poem I wrote regarding my relationship to my parkinsons. PARKINSON'S Sir Robert Louis Stevenson what you knew as fiction I know now as fact. My world is out of balance for want of a messenger. My consciousness governed by the sine's un-ending rhythm, in and out does my character phase, Jekyll to Hyde to Jekyll to Hyde. I am a prisoner in a machine who's circuits have run amuck. A living paradox - unable to move, yet never at rest. All would have been lost save for the mirror of friends. In its compassionate surface reflected a truth, the truth that now steels my resolve not to surrender this day to my misfortune uncontested. And that truth is --- though my flesh be imprisoned, my soul remains unfettered. Be the glass half empty or full? I choose to ignore the question. Choosing instead to consume its contents to nourish me as I seek completion of the task that has been laid before me. Gary Shikles copyrighted 1995