I kind of 'hi-jacked' this week's welcome. Let me put it back on track.

It's cold in Phoenix, but cold is relative when you live in the desert southwest. When the temps get down to 35 (low of 35, high of 65...), we break out out long johns and crank up the heat. After living here for a while, you forget what cold really is (that is, until you catch a snowy football game on TV, and then you remember all too well)...

Tomrrow is a Stem Cell Committee meeting at the State Capitol. I'll be attending, and Margy, a friend and PAN coordinator is on the committee. Unfortunately I dont expect them to change their stance from last year -- heads in the sand ... totally against scnt ... but I'll be there to give my 2 cents anyway.

I've been on Azilect about 4 months now and am doing fine. It's allowed me to cut back on stalevo by 30% and back on Mirapex by 90%! So i'm detoxed (again) from Mirapex - no longer obsessive-compulsive working on photoshop and creating cards for any and everyone ... and I'm very grateful that my obsessive-compulsive behavior did not include raiding the bank account in some way!

To all of you considering DBS - Mike-TTF and others - good luck to you. I have a friend here that had the surgery done early - at stage 2, and she is very happy with her decision. She's still only on mirapex .25 3x, and very happy to have avoided taking the pathway to ever-increasing meds. I guess I'm not ready for that step yet, but some day, I may be.

Best wishes to everyone ...