Under-medicating

I was finding that I was getting too much dyskinesea, so I'm trying something different. Instead of trying to stay 'on', I'm actually spreading out the doses. I'm taking 2 pills; 4:30am, 8am, 11:30am, and 4pm. It's a bit of a bother being 'off' during the day, but the side effects are much less severe.

Motion capture study

March 11, I participated in a study where motion capture technology is being used to evaluate symptom levels.
Judi drove me to London as I was to be completely 'off', so my last pills were the afternoon before. The appointment started at 9:30. We ran through some of the standard evaluations, and then they had me do some walking on a track with sensors.
They then had me take a double dose (3 pills at once, I had never taken that many at one time) wait for the pills to kick in, and run through the same evaluations.
After being 'off' for so long that morning and trying to function, it felt so great to be on. I was expecting dyskinesea to kick in hard, but strangely I didn't experience any. I was able to wait quite a while before taking the next dose. We were heading to Windsor, and I drove.
It seems that my dyskinesea happens when I am coming down (wearing off).

Doctor visit

This past Thursday was my visit at Dr Jog's office. I mentioned that the Sinemet isn't lasting long enough or kicking in fast enough. We're adding Pramipexole (aka Mirapex). I haven't started it yet. Probably the most concerning side effect is drowsiness - especially while driving.

My Sinemet schedule is; 1.5 at 4:30, 6:35, 9:10, 11:45, 14:20, and 16:55.

I hope to participate in a study that will try to more objectively evaluate symptom levels using motion capture. There is an article on the hospital website.

We went on a Caribbean cruise, which was very nice, and I did 'try' to do some exercise. When we got back winter and that constant feeling of having a cold coming on was my excuse. I need to get back on the exercise bike. If I can force myself to get up in the morning, maybe I can delay adding the Mirapex to the medication mix.

Dosage changes ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

I had settled in to a routine of 2 at 4:45, 1.5 at 7:55, 10:50, 13:45, and 16:40. I found that I was getting way too far  'off' at work and taking way too long to get back 'on'.
The problem has been trying to come up with a schedule that works for eating breakfast, the drive to work, eating lunch, and driving home.
I decided to get a bit more creative and open up the time frame a bit. New schedule; 2 pills at 4am (might try 1.5), go back to bed until 4:30, get up - exercise, shower, take vitamins, eat fruit, drive to work, then 1.5 pills every 2 hours 35 minutes. So 6:35, 9:10, 11:45, 14:20 and 16:55.
I'm finding the doses may be too close (bad dyskinesia after last dose) so I'll try starting the day with 1.5 instead of 2. Total of 9-9.5 pills per day.
So glad my doctor has no problem with me setting my own schedule and dosage.

Dosage increase trial

I'm having times during the day where I'm feeling more 'off' than I want. I tried upping my dosage to 2 pills 5 times per day. Turned out that was even worse - dyskinesia hit pretty hard, even to the point of being painful. I'm back down to the 9 pills per day, alternating 2 and 1.5 pills.
I still only take 6 pills on the weekend, but that's not working so well anymore. Today I took two pills at 7am, then not again until noon. The noon dose took forever to kick in (about 1.5 hours), then didn't last very long, and moved into dyskinesia.
Seems I may need to keep a certain level going instead of letting myself get too far 'off'.

Foot 'pop'

When I first experienced it, I didn't understand what it was; when walking and when my left foot is lifting off the floor, a bone shifts and my foot 'pops'. It was very disturbing at first as I thought I had broken something.
Turns out it's only when I'm off. My left foot must be tightening up.

Left leg getting involved

When I am off, my left leg now has a tremor. Very different from the right side, it's mostly in my thigh. I was hoping it was going to take a lot longer to get symptoms on the left side.