Saturday, March 15, 2008

OK...here I go again.

I will bitch about this periodically, so here goes. My mother goes to this Methodist church. It is older and is more conservative than most of Methodist churches, I am sure.

You may have heard me complain about the Get Well cards they send to me for my MS. Yes, it may seem ungrateful, and maybe it is, but the irony should not be lost. It is not lost on me. As a matter of fact, if you are struggling to define irony, this is a great example. They send me a card to tell me to get well soon from a disease that has no cure at present. And to add more, their conservative views help contribute to holding science back from making the discoveries that may help cure me.

I get so bent out of shape each time I get a card that Joe intercepts them now and throws them away.

FYI: Do not send a get well soon card to someone with an incurable chronic disease. A "We are thinking of you" card may be more appropriate.

Back to my mother. She also has a neurological disorder. She was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease about 4 years ago. Since then she has struggled to accept her disease. The church has helped her expansively by telling her that "she does not act like a person with Parkinson's". So over time she dismissed her doctor's diagnosis. She quit taking her medication, which, by the way, was helping her so much. Now her disease has advanced. She is very slow moving, along with other worsening symptoms. To the point where she had a car accident late last fall and totaled her car. Her reaction time is that of an intoxicated person. We encouraged her to see my neurologist to get a diagnosis. She did and of course he diagnosed her immediately because she exhibits all 4 symptoms they look for in a person.

He are the things that do not mix well:
Religion and politics
Religion and medicine

I hate to add Politics and medicine...that is a double-edge sword in a lot of ways.

OK, I'm going to throw this out to you guys. If you want to, fine, if not, that is ok. An acquaintance of mine is doing a bike event in Savannah to raise money for MS. I donated some money to his individual goal of $250 to get him there to participate in the event. If you want to donate to MS research and his ride, click here. Even $5 or $10 would help get him closer. By the way, he will be thinkin' of me as he rides. :D

PS...Stop calling me lame for raising money for my diseases...

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