Ever have one of those bad pill days, when it takes hours
before your levodopa starts working? Here's what I mean:
(view with Courier font to make columns line up)
Good pill day schedule as per neurologist:
Sinemet CR Regular Sinemet Eldepryl Permax
50/200 25/100 5 mg .25
7 am 1 1 1 1
11 am 1 1/2 1 1/2
3 pm 1 1/2 - 1/2
7 pm 1 1/2 - -
Bad pill day, (or Where, oh where, has my Sinemet gone?):
8 am 1 1 1 1
OK, it's Saturday. The doses will be an hour later.
8:30 Breakfast - Low fat cereal with hot water instead of
milk.
9:30 ON. Pill(s) kick in.
11:30 OFF. Much earlier than expected. Did the CR start
working yet or not? Did it reach the small intestines
where it is absorbed? Need a snack to provide evidence.
noon Plain oat bran muffin to stimulate gastric activity.
12:30 ON again - Aha! That's the CR, just a bit late.
12:45 Too early for the 2nd Sinemets, so I take just the 11 am
Eldepryl and the Permax.
1:00 pm Lunch: Assorted cold salad appetizers (takeout) from a
nearby Turkish restaurant. Not really loaded with olive
oil, but some is present.
1:15 - Start afternoon nap. That's what Saturday's for.
2:50 OFF when I wake up.
3 1 CR, 1 regular Sinemet (2nd Sinemet dose of the day).
3:30 - 4:30 Various snacks and beverages to get the old innards
to move the pills out of the stomach.
5:30 ON.
And so it goes. Levodopa works well enough once it gets to where it
functions. The delivery mechanism stinks. Comments anyone?
Phil Tompkins
Hoboken NJ
Age 61/dx 1990
