Bill: Well, it should be published. It's damned good!
Carole H.
--- William Harshaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Carole,
>
> You can't. Its not published yet. haven't got
> a publisher yet.
>
> Bill
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carole Hercun <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Monday, September 06, 1999 8:07 AM
> Subject: Re: Surgery for rigidiity
>
>
> >Hi William: What a fascinating chapter, both of
> your
> >life and of your book. Where can I get a copy of
> "My
> >Second Life"? Carole H.
> >
> >--- William Harshaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >> Debbie,
> >>
> >> When I had my pallidotomy in Dec '93, as Dr.
> >> Ronald Tasker, my
> >> neurosurgeon, made the lesion in my right globus
> >> pallidus, I could feel the
> >> rigidity leave the left side of my body. It has
> not
> >> returned.
> >>
> >> I attach Chapter Eight of my book: My Second
> >> Life.
> >>
> >> copyright 1999 The Harfolk Press
> >> may not be reprodced without permission
> >> Monday, November 30, 1998 revise
> >>
> >> Chapter Eight
> >>
> >> NEUROSURGERY
> >>
> >> ... the brain is the most interesting, complex
> and
> >> wonderful thing in the
> >> universe ... and it's a wonderfully exciting
> thing
> >> to study and be in
> >> contact with. ... The brain is you, it's not just
> >> biologically or
> >> genetically, it has all your experience, it's
> you.
> >> -Oliver Sacks
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> When I returned to the hospital on Tuesday,
> December
> >> 7, 1993, I was ready
> >> for surgery, eagerly looking forward to the
> >> operation even though I was
> >> apprehensive. Other than my overnight doing the
> >> pre-op testing I hadn't
> >> stayed in a hospital since I was twelve years old
> >> having my tonsils out, and
> >> I enjoyed the novelty. I brought a good supply of
> >> books and music tapes.
> >> Because the operation was unusual, everyone
> seemed
> >> to want to know about me
> >> and I was being paid a lot of attention. I felt
> >> quite important.
> >> I was sharing a room with a man from Huntsville
> who
> >> had an inoperable brain
> >> tumour. His wife was with him constantly, and I
> >> sensed, from overhearing the
> >> doctors and nurses, that he did not have long to
> >> live. Even so, there was a
> >> sense of calm surrounding the couple as they
> >> prepared for his inevitable
> >> death.
> >> For the first few hours after I was admitted, I
> was
> >> too busy having my
> >> medical history taken, for what seemed the nth
> time
> >> by a nurse and then
> >> again by a surgical resident, and then being
> visited
> >> by Jan Duff, Dr. Lang
> >> and Esther and Howard to take in the reality of
> what
> >> was going on beside me.
> >> I dimly recognized that this couple were
> preparing
> >> for the husband's death,
> >> but there was no weeping and gnashing of teeth;
> >> rather, there was hope. As
> >> the wife left that Tuesday evening, she turned to
> me
> >> and said, "You will be
> >> in my prayers tonight. God bless you."
> >> She had enough room in her heart for me, when I
> >> would have thought her
> >> whole being would be focused on her husband, on
> her
> >> family. I was touched
> >> and inspired by her generosity of spirit.
> >> Later in the evening, Dr. Lozano and Dr.Tasker,
> the
> >> neurosurgeons, came to
> >> see me and discuss the operation. Dr. Andres
> Lozano
> >> is tall, with
> >> close-cropped black hair and wears plain
> wire-rimmed
> >> glasses. If anything,
> >> they made him look younger than his thirty-six
> >> years. He had the aura of an
> >> ascetic about him. He was the expert in
> >> pallidotomys, having done thirteen
> >> previous ones at the hospital. Dr. Tasker, known
> >> behind his back as "The
> >> Lone Ranger", and with a reputation for
> iconoclastic
> >> brilliance, was
> >> Lozano's mentor, having pioneered the
> thalamotomy,
> >> where lesions are made in
> >> the thalamus, another procedure used to reliving
> >> Parkinson's tremors. In my
> >> operation Dr. Tasker, although the senior, would
> be
> >> the number two surgeon,
> >> learning the pallidotomy procedure from Dr.
> Lozano.
> >> With me they were a
> >> "good guy, bad guy" team as they discussed the
> risks
> >> and potential benefits
> >> of the operation. Tasker spelled out the
> negatives,
> >> while Lozano emphasised
> >> the potential benefits.
> >> The operation I would be having was a
> stereotaxic
> >> pallidotomy. Stereotaxic
> >> refers to the finely calibrated metal frame that
> >> would be fixed to my skull
> >> for the operation. It fulfils two functions: it
> >> provides precise three
> >> dimensional co-ordinates for the positioning of
> >> surgical instruments within
> >> the brain; and it is bolted to the operating
> table,
> >> immobilizing the frame,
> >> and, therefore the head. Pallidotomy refers to
> the
> >> globus pallidus,
> >> literally "pale globe", a part of the basal
> ganglia
> >> which is the deepest in
> >> the skull. The pallidus regulates the braking
> action
> >> of the brain; in
> >> Parkinson's patients the brakes are being applied
> >> too heavily, causing
> >> poverty of movement and clumsiness. (Parkinson
> >> himself had noted that
> >> sometimes, if patients of "his" disease had a
> >> stroke, the characteristic
> >> Parkinsonian tremor was less evident, although
> >> muscle weakness more than
> >> made up for the eased tremor.) In the
> pallidotomy,
> >> the neurosurgeons make
> >> some lesions on the pallidus which would result
> in
> >> scarring. When properly
> >> placed, the scars relieve the patient's symptoms.
> >> Stereotaxic surgery dates back to the nineteenth
> >> century when its use was
> >> pioneered by veterinary surgeons. It was not
> until
> >> the 1930s that the frame
> >> was used for surgery on Parkinson's patients. By
> >> today's standards, these
> >> early procedures were crude, even barbaric. The
> >> procedure was little more
> >> than trial and error and the results were often
> less
> >> than satisfactory. In
> >> one American case reported in 1951, first the
> motor
> >> cortex was disconnected,
> >> then other connecting fibres were cut and finally
> >> the head of the caudate
> >> was severed, which finally relieved the
> Parkinson's
> >> symptoms. It is hard to
>
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