I'm always trying new ways of dealing with my health care. I'm intrigued by my latest experiment. In my two-year battle with my doctors over how to deal with the dangerous spikes I was getting in my blood pressure during my levodopa off periods, I took a lot of blood pressure readings on my home monitor. My doctors all wanted me to get back on one of the blood pressure meds but I was sure my problem wasn't hypertension but instead was triggered by levodopa issues. I was proved right.
But that's another story. The point here is that in the nearly two years that I was closely monitoring my bp I saw a definite linkage between the BP readings and the levodopa in my system – – low readings midway between pills, readings going up as we approached the time for a new pill, peaking at pill time, and going down as the new pill took effect. So I'm experimenting with keeping a log in which I note the BP readings around pill time. I also try to jot down a brief note about anything health related going on at the time. This note gives me a recorded health history that helps, given the terminal illness of my short-term memory. But the writing also provides additional information on how I'm doing with the levodopa. Cramped writing is probably the most reliable indicator I have that I'm in an off period.(Tremors are not part of my PD.)
I'm also beginning to find that this log is beginning to be useful in providing other health information. So far so good. For more details on this experiment, see bit.ly/1e4OUVh
But I wonder if this is just a unique happening with me or does the same link between blood pressure readings and levodopa exist for others with PD. I'd be delighted to learn of others'experiences here.