Had DBS two years ago in march this year and now the 21 tablets per day I needed and between two and ten 2mg Apo go injections per day now all of this is no longer required.
This is how successful DBS treatment can be more of us need to be able and willing to go down this route.
Also dbs is only treatment for essential tremors so can greatly help symptoms. Dbs treats a variety of pd symptoms very well. I have even given my dbs system a nick name my old man and you know what I love my old man.
@A MyParkinsonsTeam Member, I never felt a thing. The patient is sedated, a blood pressure cuff put around your leg just above the ankle. Once you're asleep your are given a muscle relaxant which relaxes you from head to toe except the foot with the cuff; that foot shows you've received the shock by bouncing slightly. From the time you go in to the time you're taken to recovery is about 15 minutes; that includes getting you all hooked up. The treatment itself lasts maybe 2 minutes. A lot of people feel anxious the first or 2nd time, but when you wake up you have no idea why you were nervous.
You do want to go to someone who does them regularly. The doctor who did mine was fantastic, bordering on brilliant. But while some places don't do them, there are a lot of really big hospitals that do. There's another treatment that's been out for several years now which treats depression, but I don't know what if any effect it has on a tremor. I don't know a lot about it other than I don't believe it requires medications or even an IV; beyond that I guess it's the next generation for treating severe depression.
Having a pacemaker now, ECT cannot be used on me, although I don't plan on being depressed again either.
But ECT is just not a scary thing like it once was, yet it is highly successful. In fact, the staff will likely see you're feeling better before you even realize it. Each day after about 3 or 4 you can see it in people's faces, in their eyes, in how they speak. Miraculous? Not quite, but it can certainly almost feel like it when you're as depressed as I was. And then I could write legibly too...at least for several months. They told me some tremors never return; mine hasn't ever gotten as bad as it was before the treatments.
Does that answer your question? 😃
same here call myself the terminator woman.
I was chatting with a fellow who was giving out samples of beer at the local grocery store recently - I mentioned essential tremors as I spilled a little of the much too filled paper cup, and he said his brother-in-law had gotten DBS at the age of 53 and that it had "gone sideways"...
As for me, it's been 7 years plus, and with diet and lifestyle changes, have been able to reduce various medications.
Cyborg and proud of it!
Thank you for the hugs!
@A MyParkinsonsTeam Member, unfortunately, my diagnosis has been changed from Idiopathic Parkinson's disease to Atypical parkinsonism; specifically Multiple System Atrophy-C. Not much movement there except symptom control while the disease marches on unabated.
Hugs,
Teresa