DBS News

Greetings!

I decided it would be much quicker to type this out, as my fingers seem to be doing fine at the moment and it will be quicker, I hope. Plus, good to have this info in print rather said in a video blog.

Plans are going full steam ahead on getting Deep Brain Stimulation surgery done. Received and email from my neurosurgeon today detailing out the dates, times, places and instructions for each piece of the steps to get this done. Here's a summary of my DBS schedule.

On 9/12, Tuesday, I go in for an MRI at St. David's Medical Center on 32nd street in Austin, TX. If I recall correctly, this is a 3-4 hour procedure. Because they need my head to stay still all that time so they can get an accurate map of my brain, I will be taking a forced nap via general anesthesia. This will be the first time in my life to be put to sleep with anesthesia, believe it or not. So we'll find out whether I can handle it well. At least I won't be bored laying in a loud tube for 3+ hours trying to stay perfectly still.

On 9/26, Tuesday, I go in to have the Fuducial placements screwed into my skull. It's an outpatient event at North Austin Medical Center. The Fuducials will provide reference points to the computer, no matter which way I move my head, that in conjunction with the MRI info from next week, will enable the surgeon to accurately track where the leads are in my brain. As I explained in my previous vblog, this step might not happen if the surgeon is happy with the accuracy of his new million dollar toy that combines an MRI while placing the leads, so it won't need these rods.

On 9/27, Wednesday, I go back to the same place to have the leads placed in my brain. I'll be admitted to the hospital and stay overnight, then released the next day assuming all has gone well.

Then on 10/4, Wednesday, I'll go in for outpatient surgery to install the battery, connect it to the leads, and turn me on!

I believe it is on 10/10 I have my appointment with my neurologist (MDS) to fine-tune the programming to get the most benefit with the least side-effects. That fine-tuning process can take months. But hopefully at that point, I will have been able to greatly reduce my med dosages or get off of them completely.

My plan is to use this blog as "information central" if you want to follow my progress and get up-to-date information as to how it all plays out. In fact, I'm planning on doing a daily post on here, mostly via vblog, from 9/25 through my recovery, at least until a day or two after my programming visit on 10/10. These will be short ones, just to relate to interested parties what I'm experiencing both in improvements and any other relevant information  I think might be of interest.

So, if you're interested, be sure to subscribe to this blog by RSS feed or email (at the end of this page), so you'll get each entry I make.

Thanks for reading!