Thinking the worst

[saraoutwest]

Having become completely dependent on my medication (of which I’m truly grateful for…I couldn’t live without it) it does however put me into a mind panic if I think about it too much! It makes me terrified about what would happen if I can’t get it! I think Covid and its problems made me hyper aware of our dependence. I live in New Zealand and during Covid my senimet supply was restricted to 1 months worth at a time (normally it’s 3) I mean I always had enough but with all the world chaos what if things got so bad that medicines were an available? I kinda feel like I need to have mucuna seeds here to grow my own medicine as a back up! Am I the only one that has these weird thoughts? Maybe it’s PD anxiety?!

[johntPM]

No, I think that it is entirely reasonable to be asking questions of how you would cope when faced with a shortage of various medications.

To combat a shortage of PD drugs you could :

- build up a reserve of your key drugs, especially those with a short half-life (e.g. levodop);

- miss a few doses to see how your body reacts;

- try growing fava (broad) beans;

- investigate whether tinned and frozen broad beans contain enough levodopa to make a difference;

- to get the most out of what drugs that you do have, you could try using green tea and grapefruit juice;

- additionally, you may wish to ration the dose during the day;

- bring out non-pharmaceutical therapies (such as vibrating gloves).

[CuriousMe12 in reply to johntPM]

I spend time morning or evening off meds living a while in a natural state. Its a scary difference but I spend the time working out what my bodies doing wrong and trying to consciously rectify. Mainly with walking i have to stop the stoop, lift head up, lift toes...Practise slow tai çhi walking.

The 18 movements of qi gong move my whole body. Also helps me know my PD state.

Hopefully, I wont be too shocked if the med lorry gets held up or they just stop working.