The Parkinson's Action Network (PAN) forum is truly a gift to me. The 2007 PAN forum provided me with high-level, cutting-edge knowledge on Parkinson's disease. This knowledge is empowering, but it is not strong enough to overpower PD in its end stage. The experts at this PAN forum help us manage Parkinson's disease and stall it, hoping and fighting for the ultimate cure. This knowledge provides realistic hope and knowledge about the value of the Federal Government's involvement in the fight for a cure.
I learned so much. I learned about:
- A gastric tube for more effective Sinemet absorption.
- A forthcoming effervescent Sinemet medication.
- An experimental gene therapy that holds some promise.
- How PD might start with cardiac, olfactory, and intestinal warnings rather than movement disorders.
- How NIH researchers can get dopamine neurons to grow in cultures.
- How many people with Parkinson's disease struggle with the ethics of embryonic stem cell research.
- Significant Parkinson's disease research performed by the U.S. Department of Defense.
- The role that the PAN staff plays guiding the National Institutes of Health to wisely spend money on PD research.
- What PAN does as compassionate professionals.
Emotionally, the opportunity to be with other people with Parkinson's disease is invaluable. Such an opportunity provides me with great support for the wide range of positive and negative emotions that I scroll through regularly. Being with other people with Parkinson's, I could empathize with them, learn from them, and help them. I heard their stories and told my own. When I visited Capitol Hill, I conveyed all my newly acquired knowledge along with my personal story to legislative staff. It was fulfilling, hopeful, and positive. Finally my gratitude for this opportunity emerges as such a strong emotion. The PAN forum nourishes my spirit just as much as the vital medication that helps my body. We need that, because Parkinson's disease can beat down our spirits, as it beats down our bodies.
