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Charles, Thanks for your thoutful replies. The ultimate purpose of my postings, however, has never been to place blame (altho' should a definite culprit(s) be identified, it could be a possibility). I am purposely, like you, trying to play devil's advocate. My interest in the subjects I pursue stems not from desperation, because unlike some of those with advanced pd, I've got TIME, and I intend to make the most of it by educating myself on ALL available options. My emphasis on alternative treatments and causes stems from a couple factors: 1) a decided lack of info in these areas, regardless of whether they ultimately prove useful or not, the issue here is knowledge, and knowledge is power. Along this line of unproven alternative remedies, is unproven conventional remedies. For instance, there have been some recent postings on the down side of pallidotomies. How come negative info regarding conventional treatments is a minimal deterrant to those who opt to pursue it regardless, whereas the slightest negative info regarding an alternative treatment dooms it immediately to failure without further investigation? I do personally also find Dr. Atkins writing style to be a bit simplistic/gung-ho, however, his writing ability is not necessarily indicative of his abilities. I have heard him mentioned respectfully many times in alternative circles. Dr. Ionaco with the pallidotomies was initially rejected, but not so now. Whether an alternative ultimately proves useful does not detract from the fact that we must open our minds to all possibilities and judge for ourselves. 2) Besides all this, I must admit I barely skim myself the discussions on pallidotomies, fetal transplants, Sinemet dosages, etc., not out of disrespect for others concerns, for they may one day be mine too. But not if I can help it they won't, and I can help it by focusing on those subjects of concern to me and others with either young onset or early pd, i.e., causes and ways to slow the progression. 3) finally, alternative medicine, unlike conventional medicine, does not treat a "disease" as such, but rather treats the whole "person", of which the disease is only a part. Within this framework is the idea that we all have in ourselves the capacity to "heal" ourselves. This is NOT synonymous with "cure" necessarily, but often achieving the former allows the latter to occur. Even if it does not, the "healing process" allows one, if they are receptive, to truly learn how to LIVE even with a chronic disease. At times,yes I hate my PD as the enemy, but 99% of the time it is my friend and teacher, Nothing can destroy you if you view it in this way. PD may be the enemy for some, but not for me. It is allowing me to focus on things I have always deep down known either I should do or I wanted to do. These are the environment, writing (I'm slowly becoming a pseudo-poet, scary!), living a slower-paced life (ha! no choice about that one now!) and simply to just say "WTF" to the whole stupid irony of life and have a BALL! I saw a Snoopy t-shirt which sums it up for me, he's dancing happily, with the caption below, "Life is FUN!" To me, life WITH pd is also FUN, and I simply refuse to believe otherwise. I feel that to believe otherwise allows pd to have victory over us. I AM NOT MY DISEASE (to semi-quote a recent book title by a woman with MS). However, if I refuse to heed the lessons I am being offered, I doom myself to death and/or misery, neither of which I accept as my fate. I chose LIFE, and if it was necessary for me to get pd to realize this truth, so be it. I am not desperate, nor depressed, nor genetically deficient. I am as I was meant to be - and I LIKE IT! Anyway, I welcome your further comments, as my primary goal is knowledge and truth also, and both lie somewhere in there amongst all our musings and postings. Wendy Tebay