Thank you. My biggest secret is a doctor ten years younger than me who has promised to work with me on pain management for the long haul since my neurologists couldn't do anything. I wouldn't be able to get out of bed without pain meds, but I still have a husband and three sons at home, a married daughter with toddler who comes home to "rest", and my oldest son who comes home for long visits from his teaching job in China. They expect a lot. I was supermom.

I do very little compared to what I used to do, a little laundry and cooking, food shopping wipes me out, walking on concrete kills me,but a walk in the woods is my very favorite thing of all, and I would take anything if it allowed me to do that, so I feel very fortunate.

The first move, off the sofa, out of a chair, is excruciating, but as I move it gets easier. I am pretty much ready for bed by seven.

Mine is an untreatable, slowly but inexorably crippling disease, so that part is hard, knowing next year will likely be worse, just as this year is worse than last. My doctor thinks it is time for a wheelchair for big parking lots, theme parks, and museums, and my almost passing out at the Baltimore Aquarium probably confirms this.

I have these huge spaceship sized washer and dryer sitting in my back family room waiting for the plumber to hook them up today, since the stairs are getting too hard for me. The other thing that is difficult is knowing my children will face these problems. At least one son has CMT and my daughter has three ruptured discs and arthritis of the spine at 29.

There are people here who suffer a lot more than I do, with multiple, life threatening, diseases. There are others who live with a lot of fear because they have not been given a definitive diagnosis, and PN causes a lot of scary symptoms. I think that is the hardest thing to deal with, an idiopathic DX. I try to chime in selectively, only if I know something about the topic, otherwise I just read. If the symptoms sound like they could be CMT I will reply because while it is incurable, it is better to really know what is going on. Also with discussions about pain meds. There is a lot of fear mongering about narcotics that I feel called to refute. Lifestyle questions, like Stacy's about exercise, interest me as we all need to find out what helps improve our quality of life, and what doesn't.

I try to avoid controversy. Sometimes I fail.

Hiking in the woods is more important to me than housecleaning, or baking fancy desserts, or entertaining, or most things. I walk with two hiking poles, ankle support boots, and I trip a lot, but it makes my day. Training this German Shepherd puppy is way too much for me,but I am hoping to get a hiking companion out of it, or at least be able to play fetch from a chair in the yard. She shows promise, but these days are just exhausting. I overestimated my strength, something that is happening more often.

Thank you again for your kind remarks. Sorry for the novelette, but I felt like I should provide some context for why I hike when I can barely walk some days.