Hope!

"You gave me hope." Those were words left on our answering machine recently. The caller has suffered for years from vascular disease and wanted to tell us that she is grateful for our newsletter as it has "helped me keep my chin up and given me some newfound hope." There IS hope. There are many treatment options for vascular disease today that didn't exist a decade ago, and many more are on the horizon. I've heard from people who were glad to know finally that their symptoms were real and were related to a disease that has a name. One of the many priorities for VDF is to help people learn about the risk factors for vascular disease, recognize symptoms, and discuss these issues with their health care providers. Knowledge is power, power that enables sufferers to ask questions and seek answers that offer hope for a treatment or cure. We can accomplish this only with your support. We hope that this issue of Keeping in Circulation will provide you with more information about DVT, arteritis, and compression stockings. We hope this information offers you hope, too.

Sheryl Benjamin
Executive Director