How to tell how advanced?
My wife was diagnosed in 2018 but more likely has had PD for ten to twenty years misdiagnosed as everything else. They now have her on Sinemet 25-100 7xday, Sinemet ER 25-100 2xday, and nuepro (rigitone) patch 3mg daily. The plan is to go to 4mg on the neupro patch after she gets used to the 3mg. This is sort of controlling the symptoms the tremors, etc. Her legs still freeze and she has fallen 3 or 4 times in the last six weeks. Also the hallucinations have improved dramatically from where she was pre sinemet. My question is - is this a typical dose? Weak? Strong? Can I tell from the dose how advanced the treatment is?
Thanks for your question,
. I hope that none of the falls caused any injuries! Dosage amounts really depend on each individual, so it's hard to say what a typical dose would be. Every person's PD is so different, and responds differently to treatment. Is this something you've been able to discuss with your wife's neurologist? - Chris, ParkinsonsDisease.net Team Yes but we never seem to get the answer to the main questions of how advanced it is and how fast we can expect it to progress. Maybe those answers don't exist because they don't know but it makes it hard to plan on the future without a guide as to where the disease will be in three years, or five, or ten.
Thanks for your response! These types of questions are hard to get because one can't be certain how the disease will progress. I thought I'd share our article on the stages of PD, as this gives some insight as to what stage of PD may entail: https://parkinsonsdisease.net/basics/stages/. Additionally, this article has some more information on how caregivers can prepare: https://parkinsonsdisease.net/caregivers/getting-prepared-next-steps-future/. Hope this helps. - Chris, ParkinsonsDisease.net Team
