What’s going on?

I’ll be having surgery to install a Deep Brain Stimulation device in my head on Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at the University of Utah Neurosciences Center. Here’s the background info on what and why. To get the latest updates, go to the Writings page.

Intro to Parkinson’s Disease and Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery

In March 2017 I was officially diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, which is classified as a neurological movement disorder. If you are familiar with PD, then it’s likely that it was noticing that someone in your life - typically an older man - had a tremor in their hands or walked stiffly or lost expression in their face.  Those symptoms, and many others, stem from the fact that a specific area of the brain (substantia nigra) is no longer producing sufficient amounts of the neurotransmitter dopamine. 

The good news for me is that the standard pharmacological treatment, carbidopa-levodopa, has worked well for me for the past 6+ years. But PD is progressive, and managing my schedule of medications is becoming more complex.

The next step for treatment is to have a Deep Brain Stimulation device implanted in my head, scheduled for December 5, 2023. Working with the great team at University of Utah Neurosciences Center (Dr. Shervin Rahimpour is the neurosurgeon & Dr. Panagiotis Kassavatis is the neurologist), I’ve been evaluated by a neurologist, psychiatrist, physical therapist, and a neurosurgeon, and had a CT and an MRI (the MRI took an hour - it’s a good thing I can sleep in the MRI machine). The conclusion is that given my age, my specific symptoms, and general overall good health, I’m a great candidate for brain surgery! Lucky me!?

To install the DBS device, the surgeon will drill holes in my head (presumably to let the evil spirits out), then insert small wires into the correct area of the brain, and attach the wires to a battery that will be installed in my chest (everything will be under the skin).

Once the surgery is done and I’ve had a few weeks to heal a bit, we begin the process of ‘tuning’ the signal so that it is optimized for me. This will likely take multiple visits to the clinic to sort out the right signal levels, and give me a chance to learn how to manage my new implant. I’ve opted for the rechargeable battery, which is expected to last ~20 years but requires charging every 2 weeks. The other option is a regular battery that would need replacement every 5 years or so, but that seems like a lot of surgery to me. Going forward, it’s a matter of me remembering to recharge my battery and going in for periodic tuning adjustments / ongoing optimization. I will almost certainly continue on medications, but the number and amount of each should be significantly lower.

I will be posting further detail and updates at https://www.katemcneel.com/writings if you want to follow along.