but does anyone just get so frustrated that there's no cure at all? OK, dumb question. But sometimes I look at how hard my father is trying, and I think why is it that NOBODY can help him? Nobody can fix this? It's just so frustrating. And I can't help but feel that the answer, the cure, the key to figuring out how to stop this or fix it is so close to us, right under our noses, but we are missing it over and over.

I think about ancient Rome and how they all went mad - because practically everything they used had lead in it! Is it something similar that is causing this god-awful disease? Will there be some civilization in the future that finally figures it out and shakes their collective heads at us because the answer was so simple for them yet so elusive to us?

It's maddening.

I try not to get frustrated with life, Shelly. So far, it's working most of the time. I convince myself that I'm in love. Yes, I'm absolutely certain of it. Beyond a shadow of doubt. And that makes me happy. That offsets any frustration. If you can find a way to fall in love -- with life, if nothing else -- you'll be all right. --Jim

I understand, Shelly.

We are in such a frustrating stage of this disease. Could we have been better off, when we knew nothing about it? It is so frustrating to know more of what is going on, yet feel so helpless to put an end to it. It seems as though the answers are just out of reach. We at least, have some success in treatments for the symptoms.

We can still have hope, and pray, that the cause and cure are found while we can still witness it.

"There are NO dumb questions........"~Marshall Loeb

Hi Jim, thanks for responding to my little musing. Love is all you need, eh?

Actually, I am in love, and I love a lot in life. But that doesn't really erase the frustration I feel with this illness, not with life itself. It's like a tickle in the throat, or a nagging feeling, or, ironically, like having that word on the tip of your tongue but you just can't get it out.

The frustration doesn't fill my every thought and deed, but I do wonder about it, and when I am in the room with my father, watching him struggle to talk, it's just frustrating. I feel like if I could reach into his brain maybe I could reconnect whatever wires aren't connected, or scrape some of that "plaque" off the basal ganglia.

I think it's not necessarily bad to be frustrated, actually. It compels people to do things, to try and solve the puzzles and mysteries in life. And it is all usually motivated by the very thing you recommend - love.