Hi, Carol -- I read your e-mail with special interest because it sounds as though we are in similar situations. I am 52 years old and have been dx'd for about 9 years. Same symptoms as yours, except that my balance hasn't been affecfed to the degree that your has (from the sounds of your letter). My surgery is scheduled for Jan. 30 so if you'd like to keep in touch, I can try to keep you posted as I go through it. People say to me, "Why are you doing this? You don't look that bad," and I questioned whether I was jumping the gun or perhaps being greedy by wanting to improve my "quality of life" when what I have is pretty good, but my neurologist put my mind at ease and I'm proceeding with confidence once again. He suggested DBS when I developed fairly severe dyskinesias that can't be controlled by medication (I can't take Amantadine) and my on/off periods started becoming unpredictable. He believes that patients who are not tremendously advanced do better with the surgery, recover faster, and enjoy greater benefits that patients who resort to DBS only as a last ditch effort. (He said, in regards to your question about handwriting, that usually the surgery doesn't restore that. Nuts.) My neurologist is very, very involved with the surgery -- he will be there during the entire procedure (along with a bunch of other people) and there is much comfort in that. Good luck finding the info you need -- I'll help if I can. Holly On Nov 24, 2006, at 11:43 AM, Carol Kerr wrote: I am considering having DBS surgery and am interested in hearing from anyone who has had it done. I am 54 uears old and have been dx for almost 5 uears. I have virtually no tremor, but have extreme stiffness, bradykinesia, and balance problems. I am falling about every other day. i take sinemet every four hrsl. (up from every 5 hrs six months ago ) . I feel it wearing off after about 3 1/2 hours now. I alaso take a cr at night. Some things I am intersted iin knowing if any of your symptoms were similar to mine what difference did it make? (also with relation to speech , nandwriting how involved has your neurologist been are there any other specialists on your "team" or that you wish you had involved anything you wish you had asked about before hand has anybody done it frameless Thanks for any input carol ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn