Hey everyone - it's Brian here!  The last few weeks I've been recovering and minding the doctor and my wife's orders and to be honest was bored to tears and bugging the heck out of my family patiently waiting.   As of today I am officially bionic!!!!  Cadi and I just got back from Stanford and the most incredible experience.  After all the surgeries and all the waiting - we finally got to turn the DBS on today and have it programmed.  It was amazing!!! 

I went in off my meds so I was very symptomatic to start.  They urged us to not expect immediate results, but with a little programming and dialing in the settings - we may have hit a home run!  It was so surreal to watch them fine tune the settings and watch my hand go still.  Then to change the settings and have the tremors reappear.  Technology is an fascinating thing.  It was a bit freaky not knowing what to expect and when the setting got to high - my face would go numb and my lip would twitch (time to dial it back a bit).  This was good however because it allowed her to fine tune the therapy.  

I keep waiting for my meds to wear off and my tremors to reappear but, they haven't yet!  I will have to stay on a few meds at low dose to help slow the progression of the disease - but, it looks like I can eliminate a few that cause the worst side effects (Insomnia, dystonia in my feet, etc).
It was a very emotional experience and the potential for this to change our lives brings us so much hope. Hope is something we all take for granted. With a disease like Parkinson's you worry more about your future symptoms than look forward to life.  Also, just a reminder that while this is providing much needed symptom relief - sadly, there is no cure yet for this awful disease.  

I am hoping I can pick back up some old hobbies (golf and skiing come to mind first). Mainly i just want to enjoy being pain and tremor/Dystonia free for a while.

I want to thank you for reading this. For Caring. The texts, calls, meals from our local community have meant the world to us. You have kept our family going through what seems like such a long time. I realize when we look back it will just be a moment that could mean years of quality of life. I added some photos of my new brain. I tried to convince Cadi it made me smarter although she isn't buying it quite yet. Our kids have been troopers for this journey and we could not be more proud of them.


I hope everyone has an amazing summer!  We are certainly going to try and enjoy ours.

Brian