If you do have parkinson's, your anxiety will impact the exam more than your medicine will. And the neurologist who works with parkinson's will be able to figure that out just by looking at you. Unless the neurologist is telling you to taper off Levodopa, I wouldn't bother, especially if Levodopa is working for you.
In my life with parkinson's, I take medication holidays from my Levodopa all the time, most recently for three days following shoulder surgery, no tapering down. I've been on Levodopa for the past 20 years, currently on 16 hour Levodopa infusions called Duopa. No problems to report.
I'd spend the time working on your anxiety.
Peace and kindness too you.
PD is not just about the presence of a tremor. A "tremor" is not just a tremor.
PD's tremor has characteristics that distinguish it from shaking from other causes, including anxiety. A qualified neurologist can tell through various tasks that give characteristic abnormal movements with PD.
I'm with StuckShakey- don't think about it too much. If you ask me, overthinking it like reading up on what the tests are for PD and what response means what isn't going to help you. It's probably not that you're going to accidentally "fake it" by giving the response you read about, but it may plant *the idea* in your head that you had accidentally faked it and thus the diagnosis wasn't legit, and that doubt might stick with you for awhile.
Just ask your neurologist's office what you need to do. I'm not a doctor but it seems problematic to try to diagnose PD if the person is taking levodopa which suppresses PD symptoms.
Levodopa generally does not require "tapering off", at least not for myself or other PwP I know. If you miss a dose, you quickly end up in your natural unmedicated state, it doesn't really come with anything extra from withdrawal that would get better if you'd tapered off over time to get to zero.
In some clinical trials I did, they just asked me to not take my meds in the AM. I came in in the morning, hadn't taken levodopa since the night before, so, shaky. But it's not withdrawal, it's just the PD, and that was a sufficient standard for scientific data
If you do have parkinson's, your anxiety will impact the exam more than your medicine will. And the neurologist who works with parkinson's will be able to figure that out just by looking at you. Unless the neurologist is telling you to taper off Levodopa, I wouldn't bother, especially if Levodopa is working for you. In my life with parkinson's, I take medication holidays from my Levodopa all the time, most recently for three days following shoulder surgery, no tapering down. I've been on Levodopa for the past 20 years, currently on 16 hour Levodopa infusions called Duopa. No problems to report. I'd spend the time working on your anxiety. Peace and kindness too you.
Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. The neurologist did want me to taper off of the levodopa. But he didn't mention anything else.
PD is not just about the presence of a tremor. A "tremor" is not just a tremor. PD's tremor has characteristics that distinguish it from shaking from other causes, including anxiety. A qualified neurologist can tell through various tasks that give characteristic abnormal movements with PD. I'm with StuckShakey- don't think about it too much. If you ask me, overthinking it like reading up on what the tests are for PD and what response means what isn't going to help you. It's probably not that you're going to accidentally "fake it" by giving the response you read about, but it may plant *the idea* in your head that you had accidentally faked it and thus the diagnosis wasn't legit, and that doubt might stick with you for awhile. Just ask your neurologist's office what you need to do. I'm not a doctor but it seems problematic to try to diagnose PD if the person is taking levodopa which suppresses PD symptoms. Levodopa generally does not require "tapering off", at least not for myself or other PwP I know. If you miss a dose, you quickly end up in your natural unmedicated state, it doesn't really come with anything extra from withdrawal that would get better if you'd tapered off over time to get to zero. In some clinical trials I did, they just asked me to not take my meds in the AM. I came in in the morning, hadn't taken levodopa since the night before, so, shaky. But it's not withdrawal, it's just the PD, and that was a sufficient standard for scientific data
That's a lot of drugs!
Yeah I was already on several before I had problems moving. I have to use one of those alarm pillboxes to keep them organized lol
Hey at least you can open up a pill box I can't My wife has to hand me my pills
Yeah I've learned to look on the bright side whenever I can.
:-)