What A Difference A Day Makes!

Hi Boys and Girls. Ken Here..... I'm Back!
I better be careful... Don't want to put Beckie out of a job. (or should I say Blog?)

Okay, Okay, Okay. Enough already.

I'll try to be serious here and give you a quantitative assessment of yesterday. (I learned that word during the neuro-psych test - quantitative.)

The Fact is: Monday was difficult...... but Tuesday was next to Heaven for me.

Here's the summary...

Monday, I was stressed out, constipated (I only add that for those of you who understand the effects of medication and the abdominal pain associated with it -- leading to MAJOR stress on the body. When you add that factor to the equation, it's extremely difficult to relax) and by the end of the day, I was a mess. By the time we got home, I fell into bed and didn't move or wake up for 5 hours.

Frankly, because I was so uncomfortable and totally off my medication, I really could not appreciate what was taking place. I tried to be engaged, and responsive, and excited when things came together, but I'm not sure that I accomplished it. Dr. Bronte-Stewart and RN, Wendy Cole, along with Stephanie (in the the testing room) were wonderful. They were awesome.

The Process: First, there are 4 contacts on each lead. A total of 2 leads (wires going into the brain)- left brain and right brain. What they did first was test each contact (total of 8) with voltages to find out if I had any adverse reactions. They ramped up each one (individually) from 1Volt to 4 Volts and watched for physical responses, such as pain or tingling in extremities, tongue quivering, voice disappearing, physical agility in the hand on a specific movement at each stage in .5 Volt increments. I had no adverse effects on any of the 8 contacts. This process took about an hour and a half - tedious and tiring, because the hand movement was difficult to perform.

Once they established the fact that there were no negative effects, they chose the best contact on each side of the brain (by mutual agreement from experience) -- and started applying voltages to that one point. That's when the magic happened. The problem was, I was so uncomfortable and tired, that when the symptoms stopped abruptly, my only response was relief - not unbridled excitement (which I'm sure they we're expecting.)

Once both sides of the brain were 'fixed', they documented the results and said, "It's time for lunch".

Beckie had been waiting in the lobby all this time. When I went out to meet her, she cried --For JOY, that is. Apparently, my face had changed and I had a spark in my eye, and a bounce in my step. We walked down the hallway to the cafeteria and I remember saying to her, "Honey, I see faces! All these people here, I see their faces!" She commented that for the past year or so, I had been expending so much energy and focus, just holding myself together, that I couldn't really see someone, unless they entered my space and confronted me... that I could now see people as they were. Remarkable.

I knew I was going to be okay when my lunch tray was overflowing and Beck asked, "Are you sure you can eat all that?"

Back in the doctor's office, we wrapped things up, in the next hour or so, and headed out. We tried to make contact with Ben Petrick (a new friend who had just arrived at Stanford from Portland to start his journey through the DBS process), but weren't able to connect. So we started home. Four hours later, I fell into bed. End of Day!

Yesterday was the real test...
When I got up, (I left the unit turned on all night), I was able to move quite freely. I directly went into my office (across the hallway), sat down at the computer and started to type --- with no difficulty. WOW! That was a good start.

I spent the morning at the computer, taking care of business. At noon time, Beckie and I went to lunch. I had also scheduled an appointment at 1:30 with a new client. This was a test, because typically meeting with a NEW client has been very difficult for me emotionally, leaving me exhausted when completed.

The meeting went extremely well, I was able to think clearly the entire time, didn't have to rely on Beckie to 'cover' for me at all, and walked out of the meeting with no adverse effects. We went home and packed up the Explorer with all the gear for the City Council meeting (we record them every two weeks, for broadcast on cable TV and uploading to the city's web site)

At 3:30 we set up at the city council chambers. David, my partner in that project, took one look at me and said, "Man, what a difference in you. It's like before you had Parkinsons"

We proceded to set up the gear in record time. Beckie and I went out for dinner at 4:30, saw some good friends there and invited them to eat with us. At 5:30 we went back to the house, I set up my laptop for the evening recording session, and headed over to the council meeting.

An hour and a half later, with the meeting over, we tore down the equipment, headed home, and I started the editing process -- finishing at 11:30 that night.

Through it all, I had no fatigue, no energy loss, clarity of mind, no tremor, no other symptoms... UNBELIEVABLE!

Went to bed at midnight with NO symptoms (usually I have a very difficult time getting to sleep with the tremor) -- Woke up at 4am -- went back to sleep -- up again at 6am... took some supplemental meds (a fraction of what I had been taking) -- Sat down here at the computer and haven't moved since. It's now 8:30.

Needless to say, I'm excited. I haven't been able to work and stay focused all day like that for months.. let alone type the next morning for two hours straight.

In the back of my mind, I keep thinking, "When will I wake up from this dream?"

In the front of my mind, I say, "Not till the batteries run out!"
Bring on the EVER-READY bunny. Hallelujah!!!!!

Have a GREAT day ....... I will !
Kenny Wayne