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Dear Phil , Sherilyn and Sandra, I have been taking sinemet for 16 years. We have had our ups and downs, b= ut I would not give it up for anything - except the cure. Because , for me it = has worked. I have had to supplement it, and as the various supplements have = been developed, my treatment has been fine tuned, and very often the sinemet portion proportionately adjusted. But basically, it is sinemet that has b= een my saviour. Thus far At first I took only sinemet. Then when I came to the States, an over-ze= alous neurologist added both amantadine (symmetrol) and bromocriptine (parlodel= ). Over the next couple of years I developed tremendous swelling in the legs= , my migraines became horrendous, and I also developed a form of Reynaud's (or= something very like it) I also becamep regnamnt, and gave birth to a wonderful little girl who is now 13. At this point in time, my neurologist, who was NOT a movement specialist,= confessed he didn't know what he was doing, and I moved to a wonderful do= ctor in Maryland. She pulled me off amantadine and bromocriptine straight away= , and then put me on eldepryl, which had just come out on the market. It was miraculous. My sinemet dose went down to about one third of what it had b= een. THen this doctor said she was going to Boston to study some other aspects= of Neurology. = I was distraught at losing such good care, but we found another doctor, i= n Northern Virginia - closer to home - as good, if not better. My present= doctor is famous for her ability to fine-tune and balance the different medications available, She has an uncanny knack of finding the correct medications, and then being able to balance them individually for each o= f her very many patients. Whether this is a skill or a talent, I'm not sure, bu= t I'm very grateful for it. However, over the last couple of years, my dyskinesia was getting more an= d more out of control. I have taken permax, and rejected it, and now I am on mirapex, but it was= not enough. Finally, my doctor decided it was time to look into the possiblil= ty of surgery. We had already set up the appointment to make a vidoetape to sen= d to the surgeon in New York, so that he could make a preliminary assessment = of whether I was suitable for the DBS program, when I saw something posted o= n the list which caught my attention. And I asked the doctor about it: = "Can I try taking amantadine again ? - someone on the list did, with grea= t success!" The doctor was open to suggestion: "Sure, why not give it a try, and see= what happens?" The results were nothing short of miraculous. Two days later, I came in t= o do the video to show my extreme dyskinesia. "Sorry", said my doctor. I can'= t send this tape to the surgeon. You hardly have any dyskinesia at all. He = will just laugh at us for wasting his time." That was in September. The effects of the amantadine are beginning to we= ar off, and I'm beginning top exhibit slight side effects. But I have had se= veral good months, and that is all time won, bringing us ever closer to the cur= e, and at least in the meantime there are always newer medicines available -= and the longer I can put off surgery, and the closer we come to the cure with= out the need f0r surgery, the happier I am. I guess what I am trying to say is - there comes a time when sinemet is necessary. If the other medications cannot bring you back a certain amoun= t of comfort and mobililty, then that is what sinement is there for. Take it, = use it, and improve the quality of your life. Why suffer now - if your life h= as reached that point when you are suffer ing - take the sinemet. =E5nd beli= eve in the cure - by the time the sinemet becomes ineffective, or its side effec= ts outway the good, there will be something else to replace it, even if it i= s not the cure. = I hope I have made sense. If you want to contact me directly, please do. hiLary bLue ( 50/33/24) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~= ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > >not diagnosed (properly) until the age of 28 because of being so young= =2E At > >the time of diagnosis I really wasn't concerned about the whys and > therefore > >of taking Sinemet. At the time I was finally dx'd I was in a wheelcha= ir > >totally dependent on my parents for my quality of life. At Bowman Gra= y > >Medical Center in Winston Salem, N.C. I was given my first dose of > Sinemet. > >To me, the effect the Sinemet had on my body was miraculous. Within a= 30 > >minute time frame I was up out of the wheelchair and walking, very slo= wly