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Hi John... "Close, but no cigar..." <smile> I've had PD nearly 23 years, not 26, and am 55 years old. That means the doctors I first went to with those initial vague symptoms were seeing a woman in her early thirties who visually looked to be in the peak of good health. After all... back then, as often still happens today, unless a woman had SUCH obvious symptoms of disease or illness, she was almost "rubber stamped" by the medical community as being a "hysterical and/or hypochondriac female," rather than a human being who is having a "wake up call" from her body telling her there's a potential in-the-future disease growing in her system. That meant in my case I began to doubt my own sanity because here were all these highly respected physicians telling me there was nothing medically wrong with me. And what I perceived as a medical problem, THEY saw as a bored hypochondriac who just needed some kind of activities or work to feel well, other than her landscape design business, being a wife (then, not now), mother, artist, student, and whatever else she had going on in her life so many years ago. Finally, I'm not now nor ever have been a rampant feminist, but when it comes to how the medical community sees their female patients, I believe often the female patient has less credibility than a male patient with those physicians who are in charge of her physical health. In fact, I think that even MALE patients are often given the run-around by their doctors when MD is stymied by their male patient's symptoms - at least when it comes to PD-type symptoms. Possibly this negative medical attitude grows out of the MD's training being to CURE their patients ills, and they just CAN'T with certain diseases??? Prolly frustrates the heck out of an MD when the same patients keep showing up in their office every few months saying "Please help me," and the doctor has nothing to offer except a pill that only masks some symptoms - and that just for a few short years before IT causes additional negative symptoms (sound familiar?). Barb Mallut (who's REALLY pissed at PD today) [log in to unmask] ---------- From: Parkinson's Information Exchange on behalf of John I Quist Sent: Monday, April 20, 1998 12:11 AM To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN Subject: Re: Symptoms prior to formal diagnosis On Fri, 17 Apr 1998, Barbara Mallut wrote: > AND I'm even MORE amazed that I accepted THAT as ENOUGH to base a diagnosis of > such life-impacting magnitude upon. Truth is, I was RELIEVED and even > grateful to at LAST be able to put a name on what had until then been called > everything from "creative imagination," "female problems," it's in your head," > <they should only KNOW, huh?>, Lupus, MS, and God-only-knows-what-else. Mmm... Yeah, it seems that many docs have this idiot notion that all women are hysterical and just get the symptoms, never the diseases... *sigh* 26 years with PD, you say? Eh... I know you aren't supposed to ask a lady about those things, but how old are you? :) (Since the doc hadn't heard about someone so young.) /John. (29/0)