<h1>Maverick's Defunct!</H1>

I don't like this. In fact I don't like it one bit! I'm not talking about PD. No, I am talking about all the great movie and TV stars from my youth who are dropping like flies. Now I just learned (I must have been in lala land the day he died some 2 years ago)that we have lost Brett Maverick - remember the gambler who would help anybody out if there was a profit in it and Jim Rockford - the private eye who lived in trailer in a parking lot. If you didn't watch TV in the late 50's though to the mid-seventies, you missed out on some good viewing. James Garner was a star of the small screen and he just died at age 86.

How do you like your blue-eyed boy, Mr. Death?

Maverick and The Rockford Files were two of the best programs on Television but what really bugs me is he was only a decade and a half older than I. The expiry date on my life card is about to....you know.....expire!

Enough of the goolish stuff. On to the less goolish topic of Parkinson's Disease.

Future Treatments of PD.

• Instead of having to take 12 pills a day we will have medicine that works throughout the day. That would be a boon to me. I often forget to medicate at the correct times, often going as much as 12 hours between pills. That only exacerbates my symptoms to the point where getting out of bed is an ordeal. My covers conspire to hold me in and it literally takes me about 45 seconds to stand up.
• The free market. Advances in deep brain stimulation will be affected by supply and demand. When DBS was first started to treat PD, only one company was licenced to perform the service but with licences given to other companies, we should see improvements in the the delivery of the delivery device as companies compete for patients.
• Gene Therapy - Now I don't really understand what gene therapy consists of but the articles say it will be a safe and effective treatment for the condition/
• Neuroprotective Therapies - another stumper but apparently might slow the progression and perhaps stop it. I vote for "stop it" but will take what I can get.
• Focused Ultra Sound - at least I think that is what it is called. It is acoustic energy focused on some place in the brain, to thermally coagulate that part, disabling it. I don't know what it is all about, but I know it works well on PD tremors and dyskinesia. It is very expensive and is only used if the medications are no longer working. I doubt I will ever reach that level.

Well, that's it for me today. I just wanted you to see there is a future for us by giving you the Cole's notes version of online articles. If you want a more scholarly approach, just google "advancements in the treatment of parkinson's". At least we know there are people out there working to help us. To them, I say thank you but could you quit taking coffee breaks and get on with it?

Maverick - James Garner