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I have been browsing this list for about a month or two and decided to put in my 2 cents and say HELLO to every one along with best wishes for the holidays. My name is Bob Anibal 78, my wife Cecily 76 is the Parkinsonian of about 20+ years. Believe it or not she is still very functional, a little forgetful ( but not as much as me ) not quite as sharp as she used to be, occasionally freezes up, and can't walk, I then take her hand and chant 1-2-3-go a few times, we laugh and pretty soon she is able to take the first step and once the first step is taken off we go. The development of the PD has been very slow, thank God. We both sing in the choir at church - she used to be the organist- choir director, but had to give it up a few years ago. She worked in the local community college office and took an early retirement about 3-4 years after the PD started . I do most of the cooking, as a retired chemist I find cooking not so much different from my work. ( of course I'm retired long ago ). and enjoy trying new things. I can't resist collecting cook-books so we have fun. To fill out my time a little I started taking piano lessons about a year ago. Cecily gave up playing the piano at the same time she quit the organist job. We watch a lot of TV and read a lot. Don't ask me how many magazines we subscribe to. She doesn't use the computer - hands too shaky for the mouse. I read all the notices here - save the ones I think she would like to read and print them off . Our experiences with neurologists has been varied. I strongly suggest anyone looking for a NR be VERY careful to make sure the man, or woman as the case may be really knows his way around the PD area. We were living in Massachusetts when the Sinemet CD came out. We then moved back to the Niagara Falls NY area aand went ot a MOvement disorders clinic in Rochester. Got tired of driving 150 miles a day and went to a NR recommended by our GP. During this period we had to start sleeping in separate beds because of her thrashing around. Finally went to a NR that a friend was going to. He took one look at her and said " That is not Parkinson's disease, that is over-medication " I immediately thought of 3 different so-called neurologists that I would like to commit mayhem on. He cut her dosage of the sinemet cr to 1/5 th - she was taking 2 1/2 time the required dosage. The cut was done slowly of course. The thrashing pretty well disappeared. To those of you who offer a little humor here, keep it up!!!! We find that it is better to get a little laugh where we can. To the fellow that had to move his ( or was it her ) parent to Arizona. We used to winter in Tucson and found out that there is a Neurologist ( notice the Capital N ) at the Uof A medical school that is one of the best in the counry. PD'ers that winter there generally see him while there. We went to a talk he gave to the local PD chapter. What a personality- what empathy. Have to make appointments with him months ahead. We are looking for a better year ahead, Cecily is getting radiation for breast cancer - very optimistic- a very small lump. I'm getting treated for bleeding ulcer. we figure things can only improve in th e new year. Every day that I check in here I feel a little glow - keep it up !! Love to all. Bob Anibal e-mail at [log in to unmask] ----------