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Date: Thu, 29 Jun 1995 23:53:47 EDT Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Nancy Martone Pallidotomy Nancy has continued to improve on her left side as a result of the unilateral Pallidotomy performed on May 23, 1995 by Dr. Gildenberg. She remains free of dyskenisia on that side and also shows improvement in tremor, bradykenisia and freezing. She has been able to tolerate Sinemet CR one half of a 50-200 without disabling dyskenisia. We are both getting more sleep at night, upto 5 hours with out interruption. Prior to surgery the best we did was one and one half hours. By any measure, the left side has benefited significantly. That s the good news. The bad news is that we really did not know just how bad her symptoms had become. Now that she has one very functional side and one very dysfunctional side, she is experiencing major back muscle and hip pains from the imbalance created by the unoperated side. Message therapy has not been able to provide relief and visits to the chiropractor were also no help. Basically non of us know what to do with this body that has vastly different needs between the left and right side now. Yesterday we visited the neurosurgeon and jointly concluded that Pallidotomy surgery on the other side was the proper course of action and this will take place next Friday July 6, at St. Luke s Hospital in Houston. God willing our experience will be as rewarding this time as it was in May. Having watched Nancy over the past five weeks, there is certainly a case for the bilateral procedure that Dr. Iacona has pioneered. It may be appropriate for people like Nancy who suffer equally on both sides. I have just about completed a VCR documentary on Nancy up to this point and plan to add next weeks experience to it. It is over 50 minutes of material. We plan to make it available through the Houston Area Parkinson s Society around August 1. If all goes well we will be on vacation in New Jersey July 14-22 and are working on plans to visit some support groups in the New Jesey/New York area and preview the video. Of course this will depend on how well Nancy is doing after the surgery on July 6. Please keep Nancy in your thoughts and prayers next week.