( MY MYSTERIOUS AILMENT     It sneaked up on us, but looking back, we think it started in late 2008 or early 2009 with the onset of my increasingly slower and more forced speech.     In March, 2009, my primary-care physician, Dr. Corral, recommended I see a SB neurologist, Dr. Young, who attributed my slow speech to “old age,”which we accepted. – that is until the speech therapist we engaged, Dr. Elam, called the diagnosis into question!     With that, we decided we d have to go out of the area to Los Angeles and, in succession, saw three of the top neurologists at UCLA, Drs. Graves, Mendez, and Perlman, as well as assorted residents, interns and students. Although, among them, they noted some minor balance issues, they ruled out the following: ALS, MS, TIAs and Parkinson s. All these findings were based on numerous tests and trips to LA over a period of two years – and nothing changed.     We next embarked on finding someone who d offer a DAT-PET scan of my brain --and were delighted to find a neurologist at Cedars-Sinai, also in LA, willing to order one. He happily told us afterward that my dopamine level indicated Parkinson-ism, which, although that wasn t what we wanted to hear, at least it provided an answer.      Therein followed a series of meds which didn t alter my condition, so when he noted this, Dr. Chow recommended I get a second opinion from Cedars leading authority on Parkinson s. Dr. Tagliati s assessment, after intensive screenings and record-reviews, was that neither Parkinson s nor Parkinson- ism proved a viable diagnosis in my case.     IN THE MEANTIME, a new wrinkle came in the form of involuntary eyelid closures. At first, we treated this symptom as a new issue; and I began getting bot-ox shots every three months from my ophthalmologist, Dr. Goodman, and started a new regimen with an acupuncturist. However, now that neither treatment has worked, we aren t so sure that my slow speech and my eyelids closing aren t related.          SO WHERE ARE WE NOW? First, relevant of nothing except to let you know that, although I may be 81-years-old, I m one tough old lady. Recently, at the insistence of my new primary-care physician, Dr. Jang, I went to the local emergency room where the hospital staff confirmed that indeed I had suffered a collapsed lung, probably at the hand of my acupuncturist, we re told, resulting in a chest-tube insertion and a five-day hospital stay.      Our present recourse has been to seek help from various alternatives to conventional medicine. They include an SB doctor, Dr. Saunders, who after administering a urine analysis is chelating me for lead poisoning; and a Chinese herbalist , Dr. Yang, (an MD in his home country,) whose interest seems to be restoring balance to my system using a concoction of awful-tasting herbs. (I m willing to try anything!) So far – no change.      WHAT SAY YOU? CAN YOU HELP? OR HAVE I – AFTER FIVE YEARS -- THOROUGHLY STUMPED MEDICAL SCIENCE?Joan Jones