I had my check up yesterday with the neurologist with whom I am involved in the Phase 4 Clinical trial to get the Neupro patch in distribution again in the United States.  The appointment was lengthy and endless questions were asked.  It’s especially important for the UCB Schwarz Pharma people to get as much information about these trial patches before they are re-released to patients in the U.S.

Three little tidbits of information that I received while waiting for my appointment.

1. An unconfirmed source explained that the Neupro patch should be re-introduced in the United States market by December, 2009 or January, 2010.  Since the trial is in Phase 4 and the demand is increasing, the prediciton is that we will have them available late this year!  YIPPEE!!!!
2. The same source told me that U.S. patients can no longer receive the patches from Canadian pharmacies.  They were not sure if this was a requirement by UCB or the Canadian government.  However, they had attempted to purchase patches from Canada and were told the pharmacy could no longer dispense to Americans.
3. Same source mentioned that “Asset Chemist” in Great Britain and Israeli pharmacies were still selling to Americans.

Due to the abundance of jerking legs during my surgery recovery, my doctor increased me to 6 mg of Neupro applied with two patches once a day.  While waiting, a person expressed their surprise that my dosage was so low.  They told me that their normal patch dosage was 16-20 mg per day.

The stress of knee surgery and the exhaustion I’ve had following it have probably contributed to the increase in the RLS I’ve had at night.  However, the Stalevo will have to be increased as well since I’m tremoring in my arms and hands more than ever.

If any of you have updates about the re-release of Neupro or restrictions on purchasing from elsewhere in the world, please let me know and I will post it here for everyone to see.