I've had Parkinson's Disease for over 12 years now, and my neurologist is doing such a nice job of treating it that most people who are not real close to me do not even know I have it. It's really only visible on the rare times the medication "wears off" or when I try to move fast and bog down. Turns out he is one of the best in the nation (which I found out from someone other than him), and he still tells me sometimes that he doesn't know why certain things happen. Like when I had a series of small strokes and stopped having migraines. He told me that is not uncommon, but that medicine has no idea why it happens. Such a statement raises my respect for him.

On the other hand I got a ringing in my hearing, and was prevailed upon to go to an ear-nose-throat doctor. He did a hearing test which showed about what one would expect in someone my age (75). No loss in low range, minor loss in middle range, and moderate loss in upper range. He then went into a song and dance about the "phantom pain" from amputated limbs, and how the ringing is caused for a similar reason; the brain is not getting signals which it expects from the ear and so it manufactures the ringing noise.

There's a few things wrong with that. It assumes, for one thing, that the brain assumes that we will never stand in a silent room with no sounds. An amputation causes a complete loss of nerve impulse, while "moderate hearing loss" causes what kind of loss? Enough to confuse the brain? I think not. In short, I believe his theory is utter bullshit.

Then this jackass says there is no medication for it, but that he can refer me for psychotherapy. What? Did I say it was bothering me? I don't even notice it any more. I just reported it to make sure it isn't anything serious. The doctor is the one who needs psychotherapy.

And, by the way, there is medication for tinnitus, but I'm not going to ask for it because the condition is not only not "driving me crazy," it's not even bothering me.