Tomorrow is the 4th year anniversary of my Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery performed on May 4, 2005. The most frequent question that I'm asked about DBS is: "Would you do it over again?"
With programming woes for the first two years following DBS, when someone asked this inevitable question, my response was an emphatic "NO!"
After being miserable for two years following DBS, I was blessed to obtain a referral to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center for reprogramming with Dr. Olga Klepitskaya. With her blend of competence and compassion, she has worked wonders in straightening out my programming problems.
During the past two years, I have been able to:
- Co-lead a DBS support group and volunteer as a "DBS patient and family liaison" at the University of Colorado Hospital with Valerie Graham.
- Participate in yoga classes three times a week.
- Take Broadway dance classes and perform with the Rockyettes dance ensemble.
- Maintain and continue writing my blog.
- And most importantly, resume my accordion playing with the Silver Notes accordion ensemble.
Sure, I still have Parkinson's Disease, and my voice is often soft and slurred, but DBS with competent programming has given much of my life back.
If you ask me the same question today, my response is, "Yes, Yes, Yes, I would definitely do it over again."
You can read about my DBS surgery story, Uneventful Brain Surgery, at: http://katekelsall.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/12/uneventful.html
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