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Dear Friends, This is my third letter in an ongoing report of DBS Surgery that I had done the first time in April and the second one in June. I don't want to repeat what I already said, so I hope if there are any questions that I don't answer for you here, that you will write to me off list and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. I went to UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) which is a big teaching hospital in this area yesterday to have another adjustment done on the stimulators. Before I went yesterday(as I reported in my last letter to you) I was having a problem with quivering in my mouth and I guess a consequence of that was an overproduction of saliva (which I know is gross to talk about) but I guess the people who are reading this really want to know how it is, so...........!!! Anyway when I told the doctor my symptoms before the adjustment he said that there really isn't anything he could do about the saliva, but he did feel that he could do something about the quivering in my mouth. Well after the adjustment, the quivering stopped and so did about 75% of the saliva production. YES!!!!! I guess that because my mouth had been moving so much it created the overproduction of saliva. Whatever the reason or explanation, I don't care except that it is a lot better today than yesterday before the adjustment. So now the only thing that is still a layover from the surgery (or really from the Parkinsons) is the fact that I still can't walk. Please when you read that don't think that my surgery was a failure because I still can't walk. I DON'T CARE IF I EVER WALK AGAIN. I feel 100% better than I did before the surgery. You all know (or if you don't, you eventually will unfortunately) all of the symptoms and side effects that come with the Parkinsons. I think I had them all at one time or the other or most of the time. Again (and this is a repeat from my earlier lettter, but I think it is important) there are many reasons that contribute to my inabiility to walk. I have injuries from a car accident of 35 years ago that have become more painful and delibilitating the older I have gotten (I'm 53 now) and also as the Parkinsons has progressed. As the doctor tried to explain to me yesterday, and when I say tried he did a great job, but unfortunately it was a little (read a lot) complicated for me. He said that this surgery does not add anything, but rather takes away some of your natural (whatever) abilities. From what I understand (and again, I am sure that there are some of you, my friends, out there who could really explain it so we could all understand) the areas where the implants are placed in the brain are the very areas that help with automatic functions. He said that most people don't think about walking, but that it is just an automatic thing. Well for the last couple of years that I did walk (which was a couple of years ago) I had to think of putting one foot in front of the other. It was really a difficult task for me. The doctor said that I shouldn't give up on trying to walk again, but he did understand why I can't seem to put one foot in front of the other now no matter how hard I try. Well this has turned out to be a longer letter than I had thought it would be. And about this time if you have read this far some of you are probably thinking OKAY already enough, but please let me say one more thing. I did say this in my last letter too, but I must repeat it. I am so sorry for any one of you who would like to have the surgery, but for financial reasons or other reasons (and there are many) you can't have the surgery. I feel real bad to be so excited about my results, when I know that there are so many of you out there who suffer with this horrible condition, and again are unable to consider the surgery at this time. I am still so thankful and feel very blessed to have had this surgery. Best Wishes to you all, Diane Leeds [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn