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L Stevens wrote: > I am a 50 year old male living in rural Ontario, just north of > Toronto, but raised on farms in rural England. Makes me wonder about > pesticide links. I was diagnosed as PWP two months ago ( is that > described as (50/2 mths) in list code? not sure if the age is current > or at diagnosis), leastways, neuro said he was 80% certain. I've had > the MRI but won't get results until next visit on Jan 23rd. the code is as you put it for some; I follow the suggestion of using year of birth and year of diagnosis since these never have to be updated. I assume your MRI was to determine any other cause - rather than a new diagnostic type of MRI variant. > I've been listening in to the list messages for a month to get a > flavour and have found it very useful, particularly the research reports > posted by janet and also the drug side effects (I'm keeping a log). I'm not taking any > for PD yet, but I can be fore-armed with these effects. I'm > particularly concerned about a posting yesterday which implied that > some newer drugs contain ergot. I'm sure that has been prescribed to > me for migraines and it made me nauseous, so I want to be prepared. > > **Does anyone know which drugs contain ergot? bromocriptine and pergolide (older agonists) were derived from the fungus, ergot, and are 'ergolines'. Cabergoline is an ergoline also > **Also, any pearls of wisdom for the first real visit to the neuro > after having time to think about what's happening to me? you might wish to know whether s/he has investigated the newest agonists which have become the usual initial drug for young onset and tends to recommend that; or, if s/he is still using Eldepryl (selegiline hydrochloride) which was the fad two or three years ago. Some will prefer to prescribe levodopa since that is the natural precursor. If you have a typed list of questions, you may get more answered. I am not medically licensed but do have the opinion that the oft-used Sinemet CR is more expensive but overdoses and is inefficiently absorbed (especially by younger persons) per the published data. it is convenient to take meds a minimum number of times during the day; but the levdopa concentration in blood is spike-shaped with decay in typical halflife shape. If minimum dosage is your preference, you should know that taking halves or quarter-pills will give medication of about equal duration for each amount. The peak will be higher for larger amount. Taking one-quarter of 25/100 carbidopa/levodopa tablets at 4-hour intervals may be sufficient for newly diagnosed patients. (The drug company will not coerce you to minimize. And, the doctor may pooh-poo my advice, but I wish I had known when I started taking Sinemet in 1984 - that I was contributing to nausea by spiking blood level that decayed to nearly threshold level before the next dose before the next meal. Id est, 6 halves (or quarters) a day at 2.5 or 3 hour intervals is most logical for minimal drug intake. The tolcapone (Tasmar) COMT inhibitor taken with such quarters or halves may make it possible to have sufficient levodopa using still less levodopa. > memory problems - mine's been bad for a couple of years, particularly > with people's names; > choking up at any minor emotional event; > poor sleeping; > hip pain, which a specialist thought was inflammation, but I'm not > so sure now; > continuous fatique, which is logical knowing the other symptoms now I > know more about them. ask about any symptom or concern that you consider important or not tolerable. You will have a great advantage over many of us because you have this listserv and access to much information that we did not have. I would recommend that you read the young parkinsons handbook and Duvoison's 4th edition is a good reference. -- Ron Vetter 1936, '84 PD dz 'paradise is where you make it, not a place to go' janet [log in to unmask] http://www.ridgecrest.ca.us/~rfvetter