Where's the intolerance when you need it?

I read email from the mailing list, INTERNAF, about ataxia, and I just wind up feeling wretched.

It is not that the list is bad or mean -- not like the good old days in the Wild, Wild West of the Internet 10 or 15 years ago when a simple "Merry Christmas" would elicit a two-week, red-hot flame war between atheists and religious people. But people have become more tolerant on email. SIGH. Those were good times.

Now, I read posts from people trying almost any new drug to find something that might cure them. I don't do any of that. I took Coenzyme Q10 for a while, but it made my stomach feel yucky, or it was at least a likely suspect, so I stopped. I took a multivitamin, too, but I read stuff that said they were pretty worthless so I gave up on them.

Or there are the posts from those who work out incessantly to preserve as much of their muscle as possible. Other than throwing a ball with a lacrosse stick to Claren, the only exercise I might do is bend over at my waist and slowly sit up. And that is a might.

Especially in the cold. Even thinking about riding my trike makes me want to take a nap under an afghan.

I suspect that I am less active in pursuing medical solutions is because I am in better shape than some people with Friedreich's ataxia. Maybe the exercisers, too, have more time to work out because they can't work. I can't shake the feeling, though, that I am just a lazy good-for-nothing.

I think I'll write a saccharine-sweet post about how God loves us all and the FA is just God's way of showing us we are special. See if we can't lower the level of discourse. I'll feel better.