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At the local (Tucson) APDA educational meeting this month the speaker was
Dr. Stuart Snider, who is probably our most parkinson-savvy neurologist
these days. His message was about what to do if neither Mirapex nor Requip
had worked out for you, and there was a huge turnout to hear him. Having
flunked both agonists, I was very interested in his opinions. His first
point was that both of the new agonists seemd to offer some  advantages over
the old ones, especially in the area of neuro-protection, and ability to
replace sinemet. But he said that there was nothing wrong with continuing or
returning to Parlodel or Permax if the new ones didn't work. The advice that
was most significant to me was that he felt that people were titrating up
way too fast on both drugs, and he suggested going real slow.

I took him up on it, and started Requip again, and am titrating up at an
almost invivible pace, but at least I am still using it,  and adapting to
it. After about 6 weeks, I am still only taking 8 or 9 of those little ones
a day, but no side effects. Soon I will get real brave, and add a pill or
two   :)

When we need help it is hard to go slow, but these drugs are so powerful, I
think sometimes it is unrealistic to expect to adapt as quickly as we would
like.

Kathie Tollifson
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