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Dear Dar: I guess at age 43, like me, you're thoroughly fed up with PD. I was diagnosed in '84, and have been "ready" to make some kind of move to take back my life for a couple of years. To that end, I visited Dr. Freed in Denver to look at Fetal Implant; but passed on it (too experimental for my taste; also no promised benefit for diskynesias). When I heard about Pallidotomy the first time, I called Denver for advice and was referred to Dr. Mahlon DeLong and his group at Emory U., whom I visited this past January. They said I was a good candidate, in view of my good drug response and diskynesias They also suggested that I contact Dr. Anthony Lang and his group at the Toronto Hospital, closer to home and covered under Canadian Medicare. (The whole deal cost me a few hundred for a private room) After a positive evaluation, I was scheduled for surgery end of July. The weeks leading up to the actual procedure were full of worry- I particularly feared the possiblity, rated around 3 to 5 %, depending on who you spoke to, of surgically induced stroke. In retrospect, the odds look O.K. but before . . . The day of the surgery they came for me bright & early. First they shot me full of local anesthetic, then they bolted a stereotactic frame to my head (no pain, some pressure). I looked like Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs. Then a lengthy and noisy MRI. By then I was pretty uncomfortable, having been off meds since the night before. After the MRI, surgery. They tried to make me as comfortable as possible in a dentist-type chair, gave me a dollar-sized shave, and drilled a 3/8" hole in my skull. They passed probes through the hole, and as the probes passed through active regions, neural activity could be heard on big speakers in the OR. To accurately map the target, they stimulated the region near the optic tract with small jolts of electricity, resulting in visual fireworks. When I could no longer see these diplays, they knew they were in safe territory and would not damage my vision when they cooked my right globus pallidus. The operation took 3 hours and I walked around the OR right after the surgery. You're probably eager to read the "bottom line". I was very fortunate to have had a vey good result. I was almost useless before my surgery; now I can do anything I wish...life is beautiful & I thank the Creator for giving the surgeon, Dr. Andres Lozano, the knowledge and skill to help me this way. By the way, I've cut back my meds (never very high) by about 1/3. Hope this was of some assistance to you. William Berman