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I'm reminded that I should check now with my children from time to time to allow them to express how they feel about my condition. They spent all but their earlier years living with their mother (my ex) and were teenagers when my PD developed. Although I'd seen them weekly since then and told them what I have and what PD is, they really haven't seemed much aware of it. It doesn't much show when my meds are working, and I don't see the point of bringing it up every time I see them. I've told them more about the Udall bill than of my own experience of being ill. I have a sense of wanting to be "protective", and there's more. (Children want to be protective also, by being selective about what they tell their parents. I guess it's obvious where this comes from.) Regarding my own feelings about PD, I can think of two aspects of the experience that I have been aware of and that have not been mentioned in this thread. One is loss of a sense of control. A disease with a mind of its own has invaded me and is trying to take over and destroy me. The other is a sudden increased sense of mortality. Decay has set in. Although I know rationally that PD seldom in itself is fatal, it makes me aware of my physical vulnerability and that I won't last for ever -- in fact, my time is getting shorter and shorter. It's no small wonder that people don't want to talk about getting a serious illness. These are very scary things. If it doesn't seem too morbid, talking about them helps, especially when with others who have come further along the same route, but getting over that first hump is hard. I sometimes take refuge in being "philosophical". There's something very strange about the whole setup. I understand how disease and death come with having a body. But having a consciousness that can be an abstract spectator of these processes while depending on them for its own limited future existence -- that's just downright weird, to say the least, or perhaps a wonder or an anonymous gift. Who would have thought to put dissimilar things together in such a way? Phil Tompkins Hoboken NJ age 60/dx 1990