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MS vs PD. My wife Cecily, 77 has had PD for about 20 years. Fortunately the disease has progressed slowly and she is far from being completely disabled. We have four children from 46 to 53 yrs of age. Two of them have had a " tentative" diagnosis of MS. They have not shown any of the effects of the MS as normally seen, but MS can rear its ugly head in full bloom any time. This is our sword of Damocles. We hope that they it never develops. A choice between the 2 diseases? The daughter of a friend of Cecily's has MS and they have tried all the latest treatments and she is still almost totally disabled and has been for many years. Some cases of MS have been treatable with some of the new treatments, but the last I knew the treatment of MS was not up to the state of the treatments for PD. So, you might try to point out to the lady that MS can be worse than PD, particularly with the new drugs becoming available Bob Anibal [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: John I Quist <[log in to unmask]> To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wednesday, December 10, 1997 6:11 AM Subject: Help comfort a panicking SO >Hm, I don't really know how to handle this... You might remember that I >told you about meeting a woman this past summer, and that she didn't seem >to mind my being ill? Well, then we both thought it was MS, and that was >OK by her. When I wrote her and said that it was PD, she broke down >completely. My letter was written in a positive mood, and I really think >this is better: there are pills that help against the symptoms, and a lot >of research going on. But for her this was worse than MS, because her >grandfather died when she was 11, and he had been very handicapped during >the last years. So for her PD is something terrible! You know, it's not >easy for a child to have a nuanced(?) image of an illness, no matter >which... Those images often stay with us as we grow older. > >Stupidly, we never swapped phonenumbers, just addresses, so right now >she's in Israel working, and I'm in Sweden. Only means of contact: >letters. I sent her a letter this past Friday, with my number in it and >an "order" to call me Collect Call as soon as she gets the letter. I >enclosed a short explanation of what Parkinson's is, and a newsclipping >describing a new research project that sounds promising. (I found them at >www.parkinsons.org, I think) > >So, how am I going to make her understand that there is hope? I mean, I >_do_ intend to listen to her. I will not tell her that she is stupid to >be worried, because she has every right to be. Plus, if she hadn't >worried, _I_ would have been a bit worried, I think.... Her worrying >shows that she truly cares for me. I just hope her love is strong enough >to survive this. If she leaves me I don't know what to do. >Ok, I won't kill myself over it, but it would be one of the worst >possible things that could happen.... To make matters worse, she hasn't >written a single word to me since the desperately unhappy letter I >recieved 4-5 days ago. > >/John.