I wanted to thank everyone who has been sharing their
experiences with the new medications. It has been very helpful to
the rest of us. I was also glad to see today that Sonia, Jim and
Dale are feeling better, and hope you will continue to improve.
I am starting on REQUIP in about 2 weeks. I was diagnosed
two years ago. Currently I am taking Sinemet CR 50/200 twice a
day (at about 6:30 AM and 2:00 PM), and eldepryl 5 mg. twice a
day; no other dopamine agonist. According to my neuro's and
SmithKline Beecham's recommendations, this is the suggested
schedule:
Week 1: .25 mg three times/day
Week 2: .50 mg three times/day; reduce Sinemet to 1 and 1/2 pills
Week 3: .75 mg three times/day: reduce Sinemet to two 1/2 pills
I'm to check with the doctor at this point to determine where to
go from here. If the Requip works well, he thinks I may be able
to further reduce or even eliminate the Sinemet completely. He
said he hasn't had a patient do this so far, but two patients who
have not started Sinemet yet, are doing well on Requip alone. He
also said that he and other neuro's he's consulted with have
found that their patients generally seem to be tolerating Requip
better than Mirapex. I am trying to go into this with no
expectations, and just see how it goes.
I have two questions for the current Requip users. (1) Can you
suggest the best timing - before or after meals; with the Sinemet
or alone; at certain times of the day? (2) It sounds like REQUIP
is not effective until reaching much higher dosages than
initially recommended. How much faster would you advise to
increase the dosage?
I will also let the list know how it is going, and encourage
others to report their experiences too - both positive and
negative. This kind of information is more helpful to the rest of
us than all the drug company PR, and medical journal articles
combined.
Linda Herman
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