Wednesday 15 May 2013

Parkinson’s medication

The task of life is equivalent to keeping a spinning top turning at the correct speed so it doesn’t fall over; you occasionally have to gently flick it to maintain its momentum and you do this in the plans you make and in your actions.

Parkinson’s makes the spinning top lop-sided so it is more prone to losing momentum and stopping. The flick that would normally work to keep it going isn’t strong enough; your plans and your actions have to succumb to the disease. So, medication is taken to help impart the necessary momentum to keep the spinning top going. However, sometimes the medication has too much of an effect and makes it spin too fast, resulting in unwanted side effects.

I took Levadopa for the first time yesterday; it kept my spinning top turning fairly well and relieved some of my rigidity and slowness of movement. These symptoms feel like I’ve put on clothes three times too small for me; causing the range of possible movement to be curtailed. Medication provides me with baggier clothes to wear. Unfortunately, the Levadopa also gave me overwhelming and irresistible sleepiness.

Keeping that spinning top turning at just the right speed is difficult.

4 comments:

  1. I have wondered if you have taken any PD medication before, such as dopamine agonists, seeing you're young onset. Your posts hadn't indicated it as far as I could tell.

    Levodopa is indeed a big step, but many swear by it.

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  2. Hi. I'm taking prolonged release mirapexin (pramipexole) at 2.8mg salt as well but recently my symptoms have got worse. That's why the doctors have added the levadopa. I figured it is better to live in the now than struggle now and save levadopa for the future.

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  3. There is a line we have to draw between being comfortable/tolerating/ignoring our symptoms and struggling with them and hence changing our medication. And still there are other symptoms we have no choice but to live with.

    With luck the extreme weariness will subside for you.

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  4. Very true. Coping with Parkinson's is a constantly shifting balancing act; like keeping your balance in rough seas

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