Hey everyone! I wrote a letter just last week to my congressman about my experiences with P and I got a letter back already! I wrote about P only because every time someone writes about PA, it's like the reader focuses on arthritis alone and not PSORIATIC arthritis. So if anyone's interested in reading it because it was scanned as a picture and it's too big to post here, e-mail me and let me know! (rdubrow2@uiuc.edu)
Rachel

Was this response anything more than a form letter type response written by your politician's speech writer? Considering how much mail these people receive, I have a hard time believing they even read any of it, but have their staff handle it all.

I'll type it out so you can read it!

Thats good and at least you got somthing, I think they hate me now I used to get responses from them all the time. most of them were form letters but once in a while I would get something good and I could tell they were starting to get it, or at least more aware.
Even though you may think that they get a lot of mail, when I was talking with my reps. assistant when I was in D.C for Capital hill day. She said that if they congressmen got 25 hand written letters that that subject would get a lot of attention. Was explained to me that for every like 100 e-mails they get that is the same as one printed out letter then got and so on. But hand written ones got the most attention only because they dont come in offten anymore and if you took the time to hand write one its most have been important. this is not say they ignore E-mails and printed letters but she said they know alot of them are in form format and sent in bulk. this was also a congressmen and just his office, if it was the same for a senator I sure the numbers would me much higher since they deal with whole state population.
'
So, a combo of both is good if one has the time to do it. My hand writing is terrable but I try to get one out once in a while.
again every little bit helps, some people said they visited there reps. offices and they had no idea what P was or is.
-Fox

October 19, 2005
To: (rdubrow2)
From: Caryn Garber, District Representative
Re: Your letter to Congressman Kirk
I have your letter to Congressman Kirk regarding your skincare problem - psoriasis. I am familiar with this condition and fully understand what you are facing.
Congressman Kirk follows in the tradition of his predecessor, John Porter, in appropriating additional funding for the National Institutes of Health. We do not earmark for specific medical conditions but rather increase total funding for all research. There have been remarkable advances in all healthcare issues over the past 10 years thanks to the increases in total funding.
Good luck to you at the University of Illinois. Good luck also with the treatments you are currently using to alleviate your psoriasis. Hopefully the NIH researchers will soon come up with new breakthroughs and treatment options.
Thank you for writing to us and for sharing your story.
Caryn Garber