Hope-ful or Hope-less

Two weeks ago my doctor started me on Sinemet, the brand name for Carbidopa/Levodopa, two drugs that are considered "the gold standard" for treatment of Parkinson's Disease.  That is, if anything is going to minimize the symptoms of Parkinson's this medicine should.  However, doctors are somewhat hesitant to prescribe this medicate for several reasons including:

1.  There are numerous potential side effects ranging from actually increasing the symptoms to dizziness, nausea, vomiting, trouble sleeping, and headache and in rare cases greatly increased eye blinking/twitching, irregular heartbeat, fainting, mental/mood changes (e.g., confusion, depression, hallucinations, thoughts of suicide) seizures, etc.  This is not a medication to be taken lightly.

2.  Some studies have seemed to show that the drug's effectiveness decreases over time so that it may not be at all effective after say 10 years.  Thus, doctors would want to use it only after other drugs have been tried.  

Anyway, I have now been using the medicine for two weeks and have noticed no side effects whatsoever.  That's good news.  The bad news is that I haven't seen any positive effects either.

EXCEPT that yesterday for a period of about 4 hours I was able to walk with just a cane.  My balance and stability were back enough for me to turn back the clock a year.  I looked forward to the same effect today but it was not to be.  The doctor did warn me that it may take a while to determine the proper dosage.  He is certain that I will see some improvement.