"I'm not dead yet... >" ~ Monty Python & The Holy Grail
Some of you might have been wondering why it's been so long since I've posted anything. I don't have a good answer for that, although I guess I was zoned out on pain meds for basically all of December and into the 1st week of 2011.
A lot has happened since my last post. Here are just a few of the "highlights:"
- On Wednesday, 11/24, I had the left lead to my brain replaced. Happy Thanksgiving! My head was shaved again and I wore a stereotactic frame that seemed more Hannibal Lecter-like that the one in Cleveland almost five years earlier. This surgery frightened me far more than my original DBS because I would have to be awake for the removal of the old lead, too. They do this because it's the most immediate way to tell if there is a "bleed" or other problem. They can't really do anything about it, but they know to stop the surgery. Fortunately for me, there were no hemorrhages. The removal went fine, except that I could hear and feel my surgeon scraping my skull where the bone had grown around the lead (as it was supposed to do.) There are no pain receptors in the brain but there are a lot in the scalp. I have come to believe that I have more than average. What I lack in dopamine-producing neurons, I have an overabundance of pain receptors. Putting in the new lead went fine. However, because of those pesky pain receptors, I didn't leave the hospital until the 27th. I had a brief "honeymoon period" in which my Parkinson's symptoms lessened but it did not last until the next surgery.
- On Tuesday, 12/13, my neurosurgeon replaced the left extension cable and neurostimulator. She replaced the battery, too, since it was three years old. She made sure that the connector was placed higher and closer to the front of my head than it had been. This was the 4th surgery in that area of my chest. I'm not sure if that is what made it so painful or if it's my plethora of pain receptors. I left the hospital on Thursday afternoon. My surgeon and her cadre of "doc-lets" (aka residents) reminded me repeatedly that this degree of pain is very unusual. It also meant that I had to wait for her next day in clinic to be programmed.
- On 12/17, my son Alex returned from his semester abroad in India. There was much rejoicing!
- I was physically present at my family's annual kolache-making party on 12/18 but I was too medicated to make more than a couple of token kolaches. (Normally, I am one of the primary assemblers for the 12 dozen or so that we make). I spent most of the afternoon, dozing in a recliner.
- On 12/21, the brand-new neurostimulator was turned on -- no zapping! -- and programmed. What a great gift!
- Around mid-January, I start noticing I was having a lot of dyskinesia on my left side (controlled by the right stimulator). Tweaking my meds wasn't helping. At my surgical follow-up appointment, which was two days past my battery-operated brain's birthday, I reported this to my neurosurgeon. So next week, on 2/15, I will get the battery replaced on the right side. That should make me good to go for the next few years!
Check out my next post for my thoughts about the whole surgical saga.
