Friday, July 30, 1999
Charlie wrote:
>That takes care of one theory. But the amatadine he is taking is a
rather
>standard amount. I take the same dose. It is possible that his
metabolism
>was such that it was unable to handle that dose and it accumulated.
When did
>he start the amamtadine? Was it during the previous hospitalization or
>before. It might explain the psychosis but to my knowledge not the
emboli.
>
Joe was initially admitted to hospital on Dec. 27/98. At that time
he was having severe muscle cramping and immobile most of the time.
On Dec. 29, amantadine 100mg in the morning was started, and that
seemed to give him a 'kick-start' and he was able to walk a bit.
On Jan. 4, amantadine was increased to 200mg (100mg morning and
evening.)
On Jan. 11, another 100mg of amantadine was added. This on top of
1600mg of levodopa and ReQuip, (don't know the amount but it was being
adjusted, too) and he had been taken off 600mg a day over the course of
nine days in early Dec.
IMO, there was too much manipulation of meds with little time in
between for his system to adjust. He was having hallucinations after the
amantadine was increased to 200mg, and that is why I was so concerned
when it was increased to 300mg, and this was while he was still in
hospital.
Joe was so 'wired' in the hospital right up till when he was
released that he was unable to sleep at night. There were times when he
woke up after a nap that he was disoriented.
As the day wore on Joe became progressively worse which suggested to
me that the meds were building up in his system.But in spite of all
this, he was released on Fri., Jan. 15.
Joe Bruman wrote:
: First, NMS due to abrupt withdrawal is NOT, repeat NOT restricted to
antipsychotic drugs, but may
be due to withdrawal of other drugs, including antiparkinson drugs such
as tolcapone (Tasmar) and amantadine (Symmetrel). Possible NMS is
discussed in the WARNINGS or PRECAUTIONS section
of the Product Description for both those drugs in the good old, fat
old, boring old, Physician's Desk Reference (PDR), with a particularly
cogent description in the entry for amantadine.
We were very aware of this, and I'm still not sure we can rule it
out. It appears we will never know the answer.
Might Joe's death been averted? I'm no doctor either, but being a
PWP, I've read and learned about our meds and I saw things being done
that didn't seem sensible.
Thank you to all for your help.
Judith
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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^^^^
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