hi all

i have 'extracted' the following from the abc news web-site
about mjf's appearance on 20/20 with barbara walters

i found the listing of parkinson's disease links
on the same page very interesting!
particularly number three!
go jerry!!!!

janet

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20/20    Fox Fights Parkinson’s Disease   ABCNEWS.com
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In his first television interview since confirming that he has Parkinson’s disease, Michael J. Fox tells Barbara Walters that he has nothing but optimism about his future. The exclusive television interview airs on 20/20 Friday, Dec. 4 (10-11 p.m. EST).
The Spin City star revealed last week that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease seven years ago. He tells Walters he believes there will be a cure for the disease, a neurological disorder, and that he will be cured by the time he reaches age 50. He talks about his condition and what led him to this public revelation.

'I just feel like I’ve been in God’s pocket for so long, I just didn’t think that I
was going to be hammered with this', says Fox, who first won fame for his role as
conservative teen Alex P. Keaton on the sitcom Family Ties, then went on to star in the Back to the Future movies. 'I would find a way to live with it, to learn from it, and deal with it. And I have.'

Walters asks Fox whether he considered this diagnosis a tragedy.

'No, not by any stretch of the imagination', he replies. 'It’s my life and my life is so filled with positives, so filled with blessings, and so filled with things I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world'.

Explaining why he’s decided to come forward now, after living with the disease for
seven years, he says,

'It’s been such a part of my life for a long time, and I wanted to just chart my own path and live one day at a time.

'The other part of it was also wanting to de-stigmatize it in a way', he adds. 'And to
 just say, ‘Yes, someone you know is dealing  with this.

'And dealing is the operative word. I found myself at seven years not battling it,
not struggling with it, not suffering from it, not breaking out of the burden of it, but dealing with it.'

The tremors that Fox experienced over the last seven years eventually got bad enough to require surgery. Last spring he underwent a procedure called thalamotomy, in which doctors drilled a hole into his skull and inserted a tube into his brain. With computer mapping, the probe finds and destroys malfunctioning nerve cells that cause the tremors. During the surgery Fox was conscious, but sedated. At one point the doctor asked him to
move the arm that was causing the tremors.

'I couldn’t make it move. And I said ‘I’m sorry, Dr. Cooke, I can’t do it,’ he recalls. 'And he went, ‘Good, we’re done. It’s a wrap.’'

The operation didn’t remove all the symptoms, but it did relieve the major tremor
on the left side of his body.

Fox and his wife, actress Tracy Pollan, are optimistic about the future and refuse to
let the disease get them down.

'There are so many things on the horizon. So many medications, and surgical procedures',
says Fox. 'I really feel that they’re going to find a way to flick a switch, and this is
gone.'

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Web Links
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National Parkinson Foundation
<http://www.parkinson.org/>

Parkinson's Disease Foundation
<http://www.pdf.org/>

People With Parkinson's
<http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members.htm>

The Parkinson's Disease Index
<http://www.bgsm.edu/bgsm/surg-sci/ns/pd.html>

The Parkinson's Institute
<http://www.parkinsonsinstitute.org/>

The Parkinson's Web
<http://pdweb.mgh.harvard.edu/>

The American Parkinson Disease Foundation
<http://www.apdaparkinson.com/>

janet paterson - 51 now /41 dx /37 onset - almonte/ontario/canada
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