Good day friends,

With some guilt and much gratitude towards my husband, I am taking his advice and his lead in being a bit more proactive in regards to my health and PD. I confess to being a "head-in-the-sand" type and though I've been symptomatic for about eight years and diagnosed for two or three, I've not done much in the way of research or seeking options. Rather, I follow the doctor's course of treatment and call it good. And that has worked for the most part, until now.

At my husband's urging, I have called my doctor with a request for a phone consult or an appointment. I should hear back this morning. However, knowing this is a group of folks with personal experience, I'd like to ask what some of you are doing for pain management.

Here are my symptoms:
1) Head, neck, shoulders and back tension which sometimes reaches a pain level of 8-10 by the end of the day. Thus far I've found relief by lying down and/or sleeping. I've not taken any pain medicine, not even over the counter.

2 Deep aches in my joints and what feels like my bones in my arms and legs generally starting at a 4-5 when I awake and subsiding to a 2-3 once I unfold myself from sleep. It then increases back to a 4-5 level throughout the day and on a bad day can get to a 7-8..

I just sit until that hurts too much, then I get up and move around until that hurts too much. When that cycle becomes too much, I scream and cry and go to bed. Sometimes it's 5:00 pm.

As you might imagine, this disrupts my sleep. Within a week, I might sleep from 4:00 pm to 1:00 am one night and from 1:00 am to 9:00 am another night. I get enough sleep on average, but the hours are all jacked up.

I'm missing out on family activities and life in general because I'm in pain or in bed. My "I'm tough" attitude has got to go and I need to do something to regain my life.

FYI, current medications are Neupro patch 10 mg, Azilect 1 mg, and Excelon patch 9 mg.

Any advice is appreciated. Of course, I'll temper it with the professional advice from my doctor.

Thanks,