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Dear Peter, What a nice approach to joining this list! I'm sure that you'll find the list invaluable in obtaining information about PD. I'm a 47 year old teacher librarian living in Australia and was diagnosed with Parkinsons about five years ago. Fortunately, I'm still able to work full time and keep reasonably active physically with bike riding and swimming. I'm probably more physically active now than when I was younger and always felt hopeless at sport no matter how I tried. It is my suspicion that I had PD long before I was actually diagnosed. The disease is so subtle and insidious at first, and I didn't realise that my slowness, lack of co-ordination, especially on my left side, fatigue, worsening handwriting, voice problems, etc. were all part of the disease. The medication has made a big difference in helping to control these symptoms and others which have since developed in my "off" periods. I found it difficult to get much information on PD prior to joining this list, though I work in a library. The wealth of material that I've found on the list has enabled me to produce the newsletter for the Parkinson's Disease Association of Victoria, Australia. The PD of Vic. members also seem eager to become informed about the disease, and some of them have purchased modems as a result of learning about this list and hopefully, many are not feeling as isolated or reluctant to talk about their PD. I used to loathe it when people would remark on the limp I sometimes have in my off periods because I felt embarrassed about having to tell them I didn't hurt my foot, I just have Parkinson's Disease. More often than not, they didn't even know what it was, and I'd go into my "teacher mode" in explaining it all to them. I think the more we are informed about the disease, and the more we inform others about it, the more impetus we have to influence people to inject more funds into PD research, which has always been a "poor cousin" when it comes to funding compared with other more well-known diseases. Answering all your messages should keep you busy for a while. You got a lot of people, including me, to stop lurking and contribute something to list. Celia Jones [log in to unmask]