Do you have an on-again-off-again love affair with Sinemet (carbidopa/levodopa)? I just started taking the drug, and I’m starting to worry that it’s a part-time lover.
I’ve had Parkinson’s disease for about four years, and until this summer I took other medicines. I got along OK except for a few trivial tasks which PD kept me from doing well. To wit:
- I couldn’t twirl spaghetti on a fork.
- I could type with only my left hand.
- Cutting meat was increasingly difficult.
- Using a can opener was an exercise in futility.
- If I didn’t work out consistently at the gym, especially running on a treadmill, I limped like a three-legged dog.
Then at the start of the summer, my neurologist said, “Well, if I put you on a low dose of Sinemet, you’ll be able to type again.” And lo, she was right. Suddenly I was typing lickety-split with two hands and opening one can of wild-caught salmon after another.
Then I hit a two-week period where I couldn’t go to the gym, and my limp worsened. Except…except…except suddenly at work, at certain times during the day, I walked with no limp at all. Various colleagues saw me strutting down the halls like a fashion model, and they said things like, “You look well again.” But later, just as suddenly, the limp would return.
I take a Sinemet tablet three times a day on an empty stomach. I wonder if these moments when I walk without a limp are the drug’s “on” times.
I hope not, and I don’t want to know. Today after work I ran two miles outdoors, and I plan to return to the gym tomorrow to work those lousy leg muscles some more.
