Thanks to my readers and Healthline!

I recently discovered that Healthline.com has listed my blog as among the 25 best of 2012!  I'm amazed!  Thanks so much to Healthline (a very useful online resource) and to the folks that patiently weed through all my ramblings for the occasional helpful comment.

Thank You , Thank You, Thank you!

Considering DBS

Saw my neurologist last week, and he says I should really start looking at Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery.  In fact he provided me with a referral to the DBS group at Stanford, which is only 30 minutes from my home, luckily for me.  This is a hospital that I'm very familiar with; I was hospitalized there once when I was a teenager. My son was born there, as were two of my brothers.  It's where we go when we need to go to emergency.  It feels as comfortable as a hospital can be.  So that's good.

I'm looking forward to the consultation and getting my questions answered.  The biggest question I have, though, doesn't seem to have an answer.  How does it work?  No one seems to know; they just have theories.  Still, I know enough people who have been through it with good to amazing results, that I will seriously consider it, even though the idea of having a hole drilled in my head for any reason just gives me the willies...   Of course, if it really means that I can feel better and take less medication, I would drill the hole myself.   Okay, that's an exaggeration.  Poetic hyperbole; don't mind me.

Anyway, I'm waiting for a call to set up an appointment.  I hope that happens soon, because I'd just as soon have it over with so I can decide what to do.  Waiting sucks.

Well, vacation is over.   :-(
As always, we had so much fun just being together, it hardly mattered where we were.  However, we happened to be in a beautiful house on a lake in the Poconos Mountains in Pennsylvania.  Every hour of every day was restful, entertaining and/or thought-provoking.  We laughed so much that my stomach muscles were actually sore the first day.  That house was so full of love and joy that I felt that if you could see such things, you could see the house from space.  That's why I love this picture that my sister-in-law, Debra, took.  Can't you just see the laughter and happiness spilling out?

The trip was a little challenging for me, physically; more so than ever before.  But I was able to do everything I wanted to do, and Old Man Parkinson was NOT able to ruin my time.  Hah!