Hi Lindy,
You're right, I too have come across these type of (they think) helpful but incredibly unhelpful ignoramuses as well.
I'll start with the massage therapist in the early relatively unsymptomatic days of P.D. who told me I had it for a reason.
The acupuncturist who was giving me ways to get my chi going because I was down on it.
Not to mention the friends (now known by me as fair weather friends) who couldn't see any difference in me in the early days so thought i'd be "okay."
Later on in the course of my career path with P.D. I was "dropped" because I was apparently too sick to be asked to join in their various activities...
Let's just say they've all been replaced or in the case of friends the list shortened so that I now have a more accepting bunch of health care workers and friends who several years down the track with P.D. have weathered me through the bad, the ugly and the nutty moments then cheered me on as I emerged to live the good times again.
Cheers,
Lee