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Hullo everybody For nine years I thought I had PD and was treated for it in the usual way with gradually increasing amounts of Laevodopa so that approximately one year ago I was taking eight Sinemet10/100 /day plus 2mg pergolide. I was without any tremor but my handwriting and speech were hopeless. I also suffered from slowness and rigidity. In addition, right from the early days, I have had problems with my eyes closing. No, I wasn't nodding off. To me personally this has been almost the worst feature. I understand that this is not a usual feature of Parkinson's Disease but it can occur. And then, just more than a year ago I started to fall. And it hurt! I discussed the possibility of having a pallidotomy with my neurophysiologist. He said yes but first I would have to be assessed by my reaction to apomorphine. But apomorphine, at the highest concentrations normally used, had no effect on my parkinson symptons. This could only mean that I did not have true Parkinson's after all. Instead I had something called 'Multiple System Atrophy'(MSA) This had immediate implications for my medication for it threw doubt on the value of the fairly large amounts of Sinemet which I was taking. (I had neve been convinced about the value of Sinemet which had been gradually increased more as an act of faith than anything else.) So I stopped taking Sinemet and for a whole month did without it completely. I suffered no ill effects as a consequence but have now reverted to 400mg Sinemet /day plus 2mg pergolide because I believe my balance is better. I must admit to feeling like a voice crying in the wilderness. How common is MSA after all? Is it commoner than we think? From your own knowledge are you sure about the value of laevodopa in your case? Are you all convinced that dopa is the next best thing to sliced bread? OR DO SOME OF YOU, AS FAR AS YOU ARE CONCERNED, LIKE ME, HAVE YOUR DOUBTS? Enjoy yourselves Jack Tibbs [log in to unmask]