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Matt - I should have added this to my earlier post about my family member's surgery regarding the issue of her short-term memory: I have noticed short-term memory deficits at times during the past several years, which has probably progressed some. However, this seems to be in her case more clearly correlated to the progression of her PD (which has been so far reasonable slow) than as an after-effect of her surgery. Hers seems to be somewhat worsened by stress, so she was actually worse before the surgery than after (although she was also on a substantial amount of medications before surgery that we tapered her off of as quickly as we could following surgery). I would imagine, as it seems with your grandmother, there are changes that may occur as a result of anesthesia - it just hasn't seemed the case with my family member. Her physicians were very clear about the lengthened recovery time from the anesthesia in an elderly person, but her PD was also undiagnosed at the time of her surgery. It is so confusing - as I am sure most family members and caregivers would agree - to try to sort out which symptoms, or worsening of symptoms, are related to medications, progression of PD, stressors, etc. One of the benefits of this list is sharing of ideas, experience and knowledge because PD is so confusing. Elderly patients do respond differently to medications, and many have depresssion or dementia, without having PD. Many family members and caregivers do have better first hand experience than the physicians with regard to observations about cause and effect because they are more consistenly involved with the person with PD. I have observed that some physicians of older folks seem to generalize about their elderly patients, rather than individualizing their treatments. And certainly there are good physicians as well as not so skilled. There is alot about PD that is not understood, and some physicians seem more aware of the knowledge that there is than others. Since there is such a wide variety of symptoms that some may experience while others don't, and some medication regimens that work for some and not others, it adds to the puzzle. The best suggestion is to be if you have a choice about which physician to use that it be one who is knowledgeable about PD, since some do not seem to be. In our case, there don't seem to be any in her vicinity that are, so we plan to have her continue evaluations and medication management here at the university, and her routine care with her local physician. When there are questions about the treatment recommended locally, we consult with the neurologist at U of M. This is not ideal, but it was the best arrangement we could find. It will be more of a problem as she becomes less mobile, but at least we could continue to consult with him. It is especially distressing when someone as young as your grandmother was at the time has substantial memory changes - and frustrating whe n you are told it can't be related to the anesthetic, when it seems impossible to totally rule out the possibility. Hopefully everyone is better informed than they were in 1973, although there are still many aspects to mental health that remain a mystery. Take care Baeb Colmery [log in to unmask]