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God bless Diane. May you improve more each day. [log in to unmask] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Diane Leeds" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2001 9:12 PM Subject: DBS Surgery > Hello List Friends, > > Just wanted to report that I had the DBS STN done on the second side two > weeks ago. Had the first side done about two months ago. I did not want to > get my hopes up too much before I went in, you know how it is, better to be > surprised by something better than what you expect, than to be disappointed > because you set your sites too high. Well anyway the procedure has already > done more than I could have hoped for in my more pessimistic days. > > When I went in to have the stimulator turned on two weeks after the first > surgery, I started having dyskenesia as soon as they turned it on . Well > the doc said that was a real good sign because that meant the leads were all > in a good location. But because of the fact that I still needed the same > amount of meds for the one side that was not done yet, they did not leave > the stim on then. It was decided to wait after the second side was done to > turn them both on. Well that day came a week ago yesterday, they came into > my room and turned on both sides of the stim to the minimum. Well I went > through about six hours of the most awful dyskenias that I have ever had, > because I still had the medicine in my system. But starting the next day, I > reduced the meds drastically and each day since then there have been some > good signs to report. > > I wish for all of you that you could have this done. I feel like a person > again for the first time in a while. I came home from the hospital today. > I was in the rehab unit for a week. I still have a long way to go., but my > doc insists that I will be able to walk again someday when I have built the > muscles back up in my legs. My medicine is reduced to 1/3 of what I was > taking. For any of you that are curious, I am 53 years old, have had > Parkinsons for about l4 years, although like so many of you, I had a hard > time getting a diagnosis even though my dear brother had it ( also young > onset) and I really knew what I had long before I could get the docs to say > it. My brother died over a year ago after a long fight with the disease. > He died of a massive heart attack. I am not sure how much of that was > attributable to the Parkinsons.......but I learned from him to fight and > finally I feel like I am back in the ring instead of sitting on the > sidelines and watching life pass me by. > > If anyone would like any other information, please contact me. I will be > happy to tell you whatever I can. > > Diane Leeds > [log in to unmask] > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn