posted
Just to let you know thatyour doses aren't out of line, I take Sinemet 25/100 every other hour while awake and I take 2 50/200 Sinemet CRs before bed. There is no upper limit for PD and Sinemet. However, when the meds take over your life, as mine are doing, you may want to think about surgery.
posted
I used to take 1 25/100 sinemet every three hours together with sinemet cr. Recently my neurologist suggested that I switch to Stelevo which combines the sinemet and comptan into one drug. I now take it every foud hours from 8am to 8pm. The L'dopa which is part of sinemet can cause homocystinemia(HC). HC causes the amino acids in the blood to become sticky and exposes you to heart attack or strokes if not diagnosed and treated. The treatment is simple. You take folic acid tablets plus Vitamins B6 and B12 once a day to lower the HC count in your blood to less than nine. If you have been on mega doses of sinemet you might want to ask your doctors about a blood test to see if you have to hight a HC level. You don't say how long you have been taking Sinemet. The time you have been taking sinemet is also a factor. Sinemet is a safe drug to take. It just requires periodic blood tests to prevent a secondary problem (HC).
Posts: 17 | Registered: Jan 2005
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My husband has had the surgery for Deep Brain implants and also takes the following:
Stalevo - one 100 mg. tablet in the morning Pramipexole Dihydrochloride (Mirapex)- 1 mg. tablets three times per day (no evening dose due to night terrors) Carbidopa 25/Levodopa 100 SA tablets four times per day Carbidopa 25/Levodopa 100 fast acting tablet per day in morning
Because my husband is also diabetic and takes hypertension medication, he spends a lot of time just managing all the medication he is on. Does anyone have a solution for managing all the pills?
Posts: 5 | From: Virginia | Registered: Feb 2005
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SkySailorsMate from Virginia, My wife went to a craft store and bought me ten (three for extras) bead holders that have six containers on each strip. She then placed the hours that I take my meds on the container caps "8AM, 12PM,4pM,8PM.and bedtime" so there is one blank container. I then typed out a computer generated list of the pill dosage and hours for all 19 meds and vitamins that I take. The dosage eputs all the pills taken perhours together so that the list strats out with five 8AM pills , then 8am and noon, then 8Am and every four hours thereafter (such as Requip and Stalevo) Then 8AM and 4PM (Vitamin C) etc. I list the brand name and the generic name just to play safe. I try to store the pills in this same order to facilitate taking the right bottle offf the shelf.`I read through the list and put the pills in the upcoming weeks containers corresponding to the dosage and time each is to be taken. For example, at 4pm I take four pills and at bedtime I take ten pills. When we travel I use little plastic bags on which I use stickers to mark the day and the hour for each dosage. This keeps me aware of which pills I take at which hour and what they look like. I was in the hopsital rcenetly for pneumonia and the pharmacy was supplying my pd meds. When a pill showed up that I didn't recognize by name or by color or shape I refused o take it. Eventually the nurse learned that the doctor had ordered it as an antibiodic for the pneumonia. Then I took it.
My wife started filling the pill containers but I didn't know what to take or when without looking at my typed sheet med which was not always available. The typed sheet can be copied and given to each doctor you see so you don't have to write down all your presciptions an ddrugs or vitamins taken. If your husband can manage his own medicine this approach may help.
I also have a Nike watch that costs about $75 and has two time zones each of which contains seven alarm stations. You can also find a wide variety of pill boxes with alarms and differnet size and number of containers at http://www.medclock.com/epillpager.html Timex also makes a pill dosage watch that can be downloaded from your computer.
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Rate Member posted February 16, 2005 08:38 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SkySailorsMate, My wife went to a craft store and bought me ten (three for extras) bead holders that have six containers on each strip. She then placed the hours that I take my meds on the container caps "8AM, 12PM,4pM,8PM.and bedtime" so there is one blank container. I then typed out a computer generated list of the pill dosage and hours for all 19 meds and vitamins that I take. The dosage eputs all the pills taken perhours together so that the list strats out with five 8AM pills , then 8am and noon, then 8Am and every four hours thereafter (such as Requip and Stalevo) Then 8AM and 4PM (Vitamin C) etc. I list the brand name and the generic name just to play safe. I try to store the pills in this same order to facilitate taking the right bottle offf the shelf.`I read through the list and put the pills in the upcoming weeks containers corresponding to the dosage and time each is to be taken. For example, at 4pm I take four pills and at bedtime I take ten pills. When we travel I use little plastic bags on which I use stickers to mark the day and the hour for each dosage. This keeps me aware of which pills I take at which hour and what they look like. I was in the hopsital rcenetly for pneumonia and the pharmacy was supplying my pd meds. When a pill showed up that I didn't recognize by name or by color or shape I refused o take it. Eventually the nurse learned that the doctor had ordered it as an antibiodic for the pneumonia. Then I took it.
My wife started filling the pill containers but I didn't know what to take or when without looking at my typed sheet med which was not always available. The typed sheet can be copied and given to each doctor you see so you don't have to write down all your presciptions an ddrugs or vitamins taken. If your husband can manage his own medicine this approach may help.
I also have a Nike watch that costs about $75 and has two time zones each of which contains seven alarm stations. You can also find a wide variety of pill boxes with alarms and differnet size and number of containers at http://www.medclock.com/epillpager.html Timex also makes a pill dosage watch that can be downloaded from your computer.
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posted
I take Sinemet, cabaser and comtan 7 times daily and I found the easiest way to keep track of it all was to use a Palm Hand Held Computer. It is not much larger then a mobile phone and it has an audible alarm plus a vibrator inbuilt which tells me when and visible on the screen is the current dosage to be taken. It is programmed once and only adjusted when the dosage is changed. The details can be read for more then 100 years.
I used to be on 6 x 125/50 time + 6x Permax + Comten. I have heard from other pd patients who take 250/50. I now take Stelevo which combines the Sinemetet and Comten into one pill. The Permax was changed to Requip because it is suspected of causing heart valve problems. I am allergic to Mirapex.
m
irapex.
If you ahve been on l-Dopa a long time you should be blood tested to se if you have homoscytemia which can cause stroeks. If you homocytein level is too high the cure is folic Acid + Vitamins B-12 and B-6. Talk to your doctor about getting blood test for this problem.
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erik- my name is fran- i was on 100/25 sinemet 3xd-requip3mg3xd-and comptan4xd for abouta year. then stalevo was approved and i researched it along with my neurologist. (he's great)and we did some changes. now i'm on stalevo4xd-requip3mg3xd-symmetrel100mg3xd. i havn't had any more freezing,falls (execpt for icey ground). i'm alot less jittery, stalevo seems much cleaner to me. so you may have to be a human guinea pig but it was worth it to me.
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