Jaye,

Thanks for the help. I've sort of had those thoughts, but not with the clarity that you provided. Why can't doctors talk that way?

I have read that depression is part of PD. To this point, I had assumed that it was a normal reaction to the negative aspects of the diagnosis. I hadn't thought through the possibility that the depression could be organic.

It's odd perhaps, but I don't really feel bad about the prospect of having PD. I've told my doctors many times that I don't feel depressed, and I don't. Perhaps I appear depressed to others. I know that I feel depression and something a lot like apathy when I'm not taking sinemet.

Part of my perspective stems from the fact that my father went through hell during the last decade or so of his life. It was thought that he had MS, but they didn't have the tests then that they do now, and just about everyone in the family has doubts about the diagnosis. However, it was clearly something neurological. It was also something very similar to what I'm going through now. Having been through that vicariously has perhaps readied for what is happening to me now. And in another sense, I've felt for years that I may eventually share his fate.

However, I feel positive about the fact that there are so many more medical tests and treatments now than there were then. (And we have forums like this one, too!) I guess it's strange to think that even though I may have the disease my father had, my life will probably be much better than his. Our perspectives are often relative to what we have experienced during our lives.

I have visited neurologists and they've done some tests such as the ones you described. Every time I went to a neurologist, however, I've been dosed with sinemet, and sinemet is effective at relieving the symptoms. I have asked them how the tests can be revealing if I'm taking a drug that removes the symptoms. I never have received an answer to that one.

Maybe I have PD. Maybe I don't. What I know for sure is that something is wrong, that the symptoms match up well with PD, and that sinemet helps a lot. MRIs show I don't have MS.

Jaye, I was leaning against taking the cymbalta. Your words have been reassuring. I am reconsidering. I was concerned about the side effects--especially since colon cancer screening tests are coming up positive and I'm facing all that goes with that.

Thank you,

Karl