At 02:22 PM 09/06/2000 -0400, you wrote: >Some of us here act like spoiled brats, some I feel just sit at >their machine, waiting to see something so they can pounce on someone. >It's as if some of us have nothing else to do and our lives are so boring >that we have to "start" something to get a charge from it. To the Parkinson's List, A confrontation is the last thing I need today. Both of my feet are so swollen I can't get ANY of my 15 pairs of shoes on. But my life goes on, just as it does for every other Parkie. Only God knows what is wrong with me, or probably is the only one who cares,what is wrong with me! Maybe the reason the PD list doesn't act as the Caregivers list ,or any other list, is because this is a list of PWP's, Caregivers, Medical Persons, and Friends. A very mixed group, as it were. Most lists are for specific subjects ,or for specific persons, but this list can be accessed by anyone who wishes a forum for their posts, no matter what their reason for being here, nor whatever their subject. Try to remember that PD not only affects the body, it does, unfortunately, affect the mind. Maybe Parkies speak "Parkinese" and even though we seem to understand each other, and we have a tendency to "circle the wheelchairs" to protect each other, because we understand what it means to have PD, when you start mixing so many other personalities into the group, there is bound to be some confrontations. I would ask this of the group, when you read something you don't like, try to think if its from a "Parkie" who is having a really bad day, and maybe they posted something which makes perfectly logical sense to them, but their medicines haven't kicked in as yet, and they might be speaking a language of pain and suffering you don't understand. Either physical or mental. Please don't hit REPLY and jump all over that Parkie, just calmly reply to them off-list and say "Gee, I'm sorry to see you are not yourself today, is there someway I can help?" To me the keywords should be "Is there someway I can help you today"? Maybe we are acting as Adults, and maybe that is the problem. Kids are kinder to handicapped persons than adults are, maybe the answer lies in trying to remember to accept persons and their handicaps as a child would. just me, Marjorie