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Connie... I know this is going to sound strange, but after 21-almost-22 years of having PD, and having had a unilateral pallidotomy three years ago Oct. 24, plus have collagen injections into my vocal cords (have had that done 2 times, 5 months apart)I almost don't KNOW what all my symptoms are any more. It's so weird - things come and go. While I have no external symptoms on the right side (the side that the pallidotomy was for), the disease moved over to my left (primary) side about a year ago and from about 3 or 4 p.m. nearly every day find my left leg is dragging off and on till an hour or more after my next dose of Sinemet/Mirapex (I'm stuck at taking only 1/2 0.25. mg tablet it seems, 'cause I throw up if I take a whole tablet). I also may get left hand and arm movement problems - tho not every day. Profound drowsiness hits in the late afternoon-early evening nearly every day. There's more internal symptom but I don't wanna sit here counting 'em. It's enough I know they're there. It's nearly impossible to read anything for the first 2 hours of the day - till my initial meds of the day kick in (it's an eye muscle thing due to the PD) I have intermittent depth perception problems each day. Loss of balance, too... The thing that gets me in the MOST trouble lately - with physicians, Social Security, etc, is that I simply don't LOOK like I have PD when I'm being examined or interviewed. I've rested well the day before the appointment, and have carefully timed my meds to get maximum benefit from them which gives me about 3 to 4 decent hours a day... sometimes less, depending, and the rare very-good-day - depending (if the moon is in the right quarter or something) <damn unpredictable disease!>. Each time I get checked by an MD lately, I get that "You don't LOOK at all Parkinsonian," and they note in my records that I'm doing very well.... which is true for having had the disease as long as I've had it... but they ALSO think LOOKING well is the SAME as FEELING well! It's NOT!!! They never ASK me how I feel or what symptoms I may be having, presuming I gather, that if THEY don't SEE symptoms, well then, by golly, I dont' have any! The Mirapex - even tho it's not full strength - IS making me feel even better in the decent times, and not quite as poorly in the bad times. It's also making me very nauseous, but I ain't gonna stop taking it! Social Security is REALLY coming down hard on me now. They're saying (in a letter I got today) that I didn't work long enough in the last 10 years to qualify for SSDI - and I had worked from 1982 thru 1990, plus from '95 thru 97 (22 months). They neglected to check back into my records, it seems. So far, they've stalled on my original Appeal by losing it and finding it FOUR times, with it currently being lost - or as THEY say - "You never sent it to us." They have also denied my NEW application for SSDI, as of today (this was the one where they said I hadn't worked long enough, needing to have worked 5 out of the last 10 years). I may NOW, so say they, file yet ANOTHER appeal - this time for this newest denial, and DAMMIT - I WILL, but I'm heartedly SICK of filling out those steeeeeeeenkin' Social Security questionnaires repeatedly with the same info about myself!!! In MY mind, the Social Security Dept.ranks right up there with the IRS! Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] ---------- From: Parkinson's Information Exchange on behalf of LISTConnie johnson Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 1997 1:51 PM To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN Subject: Re: To barb Mallut i sympathize with your problem with social security disability. was wondering what your symptoms are? Because i also have no tremors but ihave some balance problems and u sually feel like a space queen a large portion of the day also i am almost entirely unable to speak most of the time. was just curiousas to what yr. symptoms are. sincerely, connie johnson 56/4 venice, florida