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Let me introduce myself and say "Hello" to all of you good folks on the parkinsn list. I first came to the list on April 17th. I've been so busy taking off the daily digests and converting them from Teach-Text to Claris Works [so that I can open a file and read it] - so busy that I have only skimmed some of the digests. But I do have copies of all files going back to February. Stan Schenkerman was good enough to give me copies of the first month or two. I have been somewhat surprised at the number of hospitals these days that offer the pallidotomy procedure. I consider myself very fortunate in that I got into the program at Emory early on. I had my first pallidotomy on the right brain in July 1994, and a second one on the left brain in August 1995. The results have been 'spectacular'! My wild, disabling dyskinesias are past history [so far!], and I no longer freeze for hours at a time. I thank my lucky stars, and count my blessings, every day... I must add I got some negatives after the second pallidotomy - my speech and my handwriting are a little worse that before, and I seem to have muscle problems - my body is all distorted. But I'll trade those problems for the dyskinesias on my right side that are gone now, any time! As to medication, I am on plain levodopa and permax - 3,050 mg of levodopa daily - a 700 mg dose at 8 am, then 3 doses of 750 mg 4 hours apart. I finish the day with 100 mg at bedtime. My permax is 4 doses of 1.125 mg for a daily total of 4.5 mg. During the past 25 years I have run the gamut of treatment for Parkinsons, even had a tube in my gut for 2 years pumping in liquid Sinemet. I tried Sinemet, Sinemet CR, and plain levodopa. But nothing prevented wild dyskinesias, and freezing for hours on end. Then came the pallidotomies and blessed relief! And, that's my story. I do hope that I can contribute to the list in some way in the future. Mort [log in to unmask],Internet P.S. I haven't received any lists for June or the last week in May. I was in the hospital with another heart attack, and angioplasty during this time. And my modem was down a couple of days after I got home, so I didn't collect my mail for about a week. Is this the reason. I just looked - the last issue I got was 5/27 to 5/28 -->