Sorry, I haven't been on here for a while so only just seen your posts. Thanks for the hugs and good wishes.
Well, the patches were useless. They seriously disrupted my sleep (I woke up once an hour, every night) so by the end of the first week I was exhausted and could barely function. I stuck with them for another couple of weeks but it got no better - and I put on 3kgs! They didn't help my symptoms much either. And sadly, no sign of the excessive shopping.

(Probably because I had no energy for it!)
I went to my GP but she couldn't help - this is specialist medication, apparently, and not something she knew anything about. Apparently I should have been registered (I don't know by whom) with a Parkinson's nurse but I wasn't, so now I have to wait for her to get in touch with the clinic where I was diagnosed, and for them to respond.
It's just a good thing I'm not (yet) too debilitated, although it's a struggle sometimes.