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I was a participant in the CEP-1347 clinical trial. As part of the trial, we were required to take the trial medicine 2 times a day, approximately 1 hour after the morning and evening meals. I found if I didn’t set a timer, I’d invariably forget to take the drug. And so it went for 2 years. Unfortunately the trial was cancelled due to lack of efficacy.)

When the trial ended, suddenly I was no longer ruled by the beep. It felt like there was something missing in my life. I felt a strange freedom.

About 6 months later my symptoms progressed, as invariably happens with PD, and I realized that I would have to increase the dosage of my meds, or try changing their timing. Rather than increase the dose, I decided to try changing the times I took the meds. I decided to try taking a pill every 3 hours throughout the day. Hopefully the coverage would not wear off prior to the next pill time.

Ok taking a pill every 3 hours is not an easy thing for me to remember. So I decided to go back to using a beep. I knew that there were pill reminders available, so I did some web searches. I wanted something compact that I could carry around easily with me. I considered a timer that I would set to ring at 3 hours, and reset it for the next 3 hours and so on.

Then I noticed a watch! You could program in appointments (for me, med times), phone numbers, and much more. And you do this on the computer using software for the watch, and then download the info to the watch using a USB port.

That was it – the watch is big and clunky, but so what?! I wear it, and every day at 10:00,1:00, 4:00 and 8:00 it buzzes me. And when the battery dies (as it ultimately will), I can resend all of the data to the watch using the computer – much easier than trying to input directly into the watch.

So I’m back to living by the beep. And yes, retiming my meds is working very well. Thanks!