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Dear Mike, I too have experienced some speech deterioration after my pallidotomy but I will take that as opposed to thee dyskinesia and the stiffness that I had before. So many other things are so much better now. Even with the speech deficit I regularly taech an adult bible class each week. David Moreland >I am the son of a long term Parkinson's patient who just had a pallidotomy >at a Toronto hospital last week (March 18, 1996). Dr. Lozano was the >neurosurgeon. Contrary to most of the Web reactions to this surgery that I >have read, my Mother was extremely unhappy with the result. > >In summary, although her arm & leg motions were improved dramatically when >she was sitting in a chair doing the exercises, these improvements did not >translate into any useable gains. Another words, she found it more difficult >(actually impossible) to get out of bed and walk. Also, the skill of >"picking up things" has gotten worse. Finally, her ability to speak >deteriorated greatly and she began to drool as a result of the surgery. This >speech deterioration is the thing that bothers her the most. > >Dr. Lozano said he has had only one other patient out of 100 have their >speech deteriorate and in that case, the ability to speak returned in 2-3 >weeks. However, when I read other patients comments, a more typical reaction >seems to be that the deteriorated speech effect is a small price to pay for >the other gains. I did not see anybody saying that it had gotten better. > >Any comments regarding the speech problem specifically or the results in >general would be appreciated. > >Regards, Mike Holliday ([log in to unmask]) in Houston, Tx > >My Mother (Joan Holliday)([log in to unmask]) lives in Buffalo, NY > > David L. Moreland