Ok you guys time, for a "time out"! What Brian says is indeed a fact. We have had many long time posters burn out from answering the same questions over and over again. Amy has a point too - that oftentimes people are scared sh*tless and need personal attention and sometimes redundant posting is called for. Both points of view have validity.

There has to be a balance between the two though however and some degree of discernment over what is a "burning bush" issue and something that is easily answered by a little searching in the archives. As Brian alluded to, some of the original threads may contain a very detailed set of suggestions and the current response may be the "Readers Digest" version. That's why more often, I too have been directing people to the search engine. The archives are part of the patient forum just as much as the active pages. There are only a handful of us that answer most of the posts here and it can be overwhelming at times. There is some really good stuff in the archives. There is a beautiful legacy that others who have gone before have left in the archives. It would be a terrible injustice to those who have given not only their sage advice but in some cases their very lives in the service of others.

There is also a lot of basic information on the home page as well (which many overlook). Thousands of manhours have gone into the main pages and they are constantly being updated and being made more user friendly.

On the darker side, there are some who abuse the intention of the forum as well - starting mutiple threads for the same individual, when one coordinated thread would be more sensible (and actually more beneficial) and of course we get our fair share of hypochondriacs and other wierdness. All of this just stretches the limited resources very thin.

Being a frequent poster here I can tell you that it can have it's emotional impact and problems for us as well. Many times my doctors have warned me to get off of the boards because it was impacting my own mental health. I do take some time outs myself at times. When people like Danny Boy, Dinah, Heather and many others lose the battle, it can be devastating for us as well since they (and you) are all part of our extended family.

At this very moment I am in an anger management class at my church. Anger is a healthy emotion - what is unhealthy is how we channel it. It can be used for positive or negative energy and the choice is the challenge, or what we do with it. One always has to ask - is this venting going to help the larger good, especially in someone else's thread. Or if one simply needs to vent then then are appropriate topics for that purpose, like the blogs for instance. After all this thread started out about toothbrushes!!?!?!

Having numerous personal correspondence with both of you I know that we are all on the same page about wanting to help and take some of the fear out of an unthinkable and terrible disease. There are times that we must just simply go out and throw bricks at the wall rather then vent on each other.

I personally prefer taking my M1 Garand to the rifle range...

Peace