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Dear Joyce, I had a succesful right pallidotomy a few weeks ago. I'll try to walk you through it based on my experiences. A couple of days prior to surgery, they stopped my meds overnight preparatory to a videotaping session in the morning in order to establish how I performed completely "off" meds. Then I took meds, and they taped me in the "on" state. The night before surgery, I stopped my meds at midnight. Early in the A.M. they came up to the room to bring me to the MRI. Prior to the MRI, they affixed the stereotactic frame to my head. Uncomfortable, but not painful, as they use plenty of local anesthetic. Because I was off meds, my legs were quite uncomfortable - they had no solution for that particular problem... grin & bear it. The MRI is then done with the frame in place - kind of noisy, but not too terrible. Then into the OR. They shaved an area about 2" x 2" at the front of my head, and gave more local anesthetic. Then a grinning medico pulled out a Black & Decker cordless drill, and they drilled a little hole in my skull. No pain at all. Frtom then on the procedure consisted of listening to the sounds made on big speakers, these were the sounds of neurons firing as they passed probes into the brain. Actually, quite interesting as an intellectual exercise, until you remember it's your brain. To help the surgeons make the lesion in the correct spot, they stimulate the brain. If you see bright lights in your visual field, they know they are too close to the optic tract and back off. Similarly, if you expeience a twitching in some back muscles, they are too close to a certain motor area, and they adjust accordingly. Then they do the lesion. It feels like meds coming on. I got up after surgery and walked around the room. My left side was very much better, and I had some benefit also on the right. My surgery took 3 hours. MRI close to 1 hour (unusually long - they took extra pictures). I had "charley horses" (muscle pain ) in both thighs for a couple of days afterward, tylenol took care of the pain, due I think, to muscular stress of no meds. They gave no tranquilizers - there was no pain except for some discomfort from the frame and being off meds. Don't be too anxious - it wasn't a walk in the park, but I've had worse dental appointments. They kept me in the hospital for observation4 days post-op.. but I got passes to go out & visit friends. The results? I'm enjoying life again, no more diskynesias, much more pep, I look and feel human again, and I've put on about 15 lbs since I'm eating with lots of gusto. Among my friends & acquaintances, I am an object of delighted curiosity, a regular medical miracle. Risks are if a probe hits an important blood vessel, stroke, possible paralysis or even death. My reading indicates risk of some kind of problem at from 2% to 5% depending on how many needle passes necessary to locate lesion spot. Considering the potential benefits, risk seems acceptable. I was also quite concerned prior to surgery, I certainly didn't wish to get worse, but I was so fed up with the Parkinsons imprisoning me that I decided to go ahead. Hope this info answered your questions. William Berman