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dear friends, all: your kind words and all-around thoughtfulness has reminded me just how jaded i have become after 13 years of living with pd has made me. i guess that i have seen so many of these "cures" come down the highway that i cannot get excited about anything. every time a major news anchor comes on and tells about how this wonderful new treatment has been discovered for pd, i just cringe, wondering how badly this "cure" will affect my fellow parkies in whom hope springs eternal, or how it will affect my fundraising. it took me along time to understand that these "soundbites" are just that, rhetoric backed up with a fact or two and the ability to start pd-ers heart's pumping and the general public to sit back, breath a satisfied sigh of relief and to believe that something's finally gonna make that bit of unpleasantness (parkinson's, cloning, stem cell research and all that rot) be put away while we deal with north korea and saddam. in fact it makes us all need to work harder than ever to remind people that this disease is still incurable, still progressive, still life altering, still painful, and still costing the government billions of dollars in ss benefits, lost productivity, home and hospitalized patient care. after the Q-10 hooplaa came out, i recieved phone calls from folks all over thinking and asking "is it finally over for you?" as if to say "could you please find something more palatable to talk about??" i know theirs were not unkind questions but rather them becoming as fatigued listening to me talk about pd as i ssometimes wonder what i used to talk about. raj and others, i'm sorry to have rained on your parade.....i sincerely wish you the best and would be thrilled to be proved wrong...but i guess i'm one of those who will need the proof before i sign on again for anything that isn't tried and proven by medicial and scientific research. i agree that if found today, a treatment alternative is still at least ten years down the road and i, like many of you, cannot see the road that far ahead-it may be too late for me, too. but then, we are only given one day at a time and it is my intention to live each day with as much dignity and grace that i can muster. nancy, my dear friend, please call me or email me when you get a moment and i will give you the info about the braces that i just got yesterday. i don't want to raise anyone's hopes because they have yet to be proven helpful...but as i said.....HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL!! -- Joan E. Blessington Snyder 50/11 http://www.pwnkle.com/jes/jes_web/index.htm <[log in to unmask]> "Hang tough...........no way through it but to do it." Chris-in-the-Morning (Northern Exposure) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn