Originally Posted by Jaye

Them: "You look fine. I really mean it. You look terrific!"
Reply A: "Thank you very much. It only takes $12,000 worth of prescription drugs a year to keep me looking this terrific on my good days."
Reply B: "Thank you very much, and thank the drugs, the doctors, and the guy that drove me here. i know you understand because of your lupus/arthritis/gangrene/cancer." Be prepared to listen to their latest story, but the subject is off PD, at least.
Reply C: "Thank you very much. I wish the drugs would work all the time like this. Of course none of it could be A-G-E, ha ha."
Reply D: "Thank you very much. That's so good to hear when I feel so crappy inside." This one is reserved for the gal who is always "checking" to make sure I haven't gone helpless like her relative who has PD-or-was-it-Alzheimer's/MS/Shy-Drager. Either she expects this to happen in a week's time or she enjoys reminding me of it.

Anti-whine attitude for those who want to hover: "No, no [you don't need to carry a chair for me over here to the middle of the hallway], I need the exercise, and besides, the PD slows me down but it doesn't stop me."

Them: "You have PD.? Oh, I take vitamins and eat properly!"
Reply: "Ever since the days when people had to go to a hard-to-find health food store to buy stone-ground whole wheat flour, so have I, honey, so have I."

Them: "That's contagious, isn't it?" Oh, how tempting it was to say yes. Instead I pointed out that if that were so, all the wives and husbands of people with PD would come down with it.

The podcast is terrific. I found it easily by searching iTunes for Parkinson's.

Jaye