[Dick S]

I realize I am probably "wailing into the wind" and I know I am "preaching to the choir" and maybe, like Don Quixote, I am tilting at windmills, but I just get so mad at this disease sometimes, I could spit and I need to rant. I guess it's the daily dragging around the house that gets to me.

I talked on the phone sometime back to a lady who has suffered with MDS for twenty years and she calls it the "not enough disease". There are "not enough" people like us who get it each year. There are "not enough" people who care we have it or understand it. There is "not enough" research. There are "not enough" researchers working on it. There is "not enough" money to find the cures. There are "not enough" drugs to fight it. There are "not enough" cures or remedies. There is "not enough" being done about it. And I could go on and on about "not enough', but you get the point.

With older people like me, they can't do bone marrow transplants or SCTs and the medications seem to be less affective and tougher on us anf I know I can't fight the disease alone. And you want to ask yourself...."why me?"... "why the not enough disease?". It dawned on that IF this was happening to kids or animals, the whole world would be "up in arms" with telethons and fund raisers and such to find a cure. Don't get me wrong, kids, especially those with leukemia need all the attention, medicine and care they can get and deserve.... they are little brothers and sisters in kind with us. But why do we have to get the older "not enough" disease?

I hope I am wrong, but after the AA&MDS Conference in July and we get to talk to the Congressmen and Senators and plead our case for funding to help to fight this disease, I hope, after all is said and done, they don't look back on what was said and just come to the conclusion "oh well, not enough people have it and it doesn't look like such a big deal", so whats the hurry in funding and finding a cure.

Thank you for letting me rant....I almost feel better now.

Dick