Sinemet Romance

romance

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.

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