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To Bev McNeill, I thought I'd save the trouble of going to the archives. Don chose thalamic stimulation over pallidotomy in 1994. Mortality and morbidity rates seemed better w/VIM, and other negative side effects were reported as lower. In addition, Don liked the idea of not having part of his brain burned out, figuring he was losing enough brain cells to PD. Also, the stim. surgery is reversible--that is, everything can be turned off (or removed) if something new comes up. At the time, such surgery was not being done in the U.S., so we went to Grenoble, France, where the surgery was originated by Dr. A. Benabid and had him do it. Don was the first U.S. patient, but about 185 down the list of how many Benabid had done. He needs to be "tuned up" from time to time (usually annually) and has gone to Grenoble (by himself) in Jan. 1995 and Jan. 1996 for that; now that the work is being done in Kansas City, we can go there for tune ups. And once his neurologist learns the technique we can have it done here. Don's main symptom was tremor, and the thal. implant alleviated that symptom only; it was not useful against other symptoms. Other implant surgeries are useful against other symptoms. We are more than pleased with the results. Fortunately, our short-term memories are not particularly good (or maybe it's repression): we don't remember how truly awful it was the two years before the surgery; we never slept a night through; Don had full-body shakes (the PD), hallucinations, paranoia, depression, etc. (the high level of meds). We will be happy to share any more information if requested. Joanne Sandstrom [log in to unmask] CG for Don, 58, 21 yrs., sinemet and eldepryl, thal. stim. surgery 6/94