Brain Blog 2004 #1

2004

HANK’S BRAIN BLOG (#1)

Greetings to everyone from San Diego and welcome to Hank’s Brain Blog; a running web log account of my upcoming brain surgery.
If you’d like to be pulled from the list, just let me know.


THE BACKGROUND
For as long as I can remember, my hands have shaken. As a child, teenager, young adult, and now as an older adult I’ve had to deal with tremors in my hands & arms as well as my legs and head. The official name for the condition is “Essential Tremor” or sometimes “Familial Tremor” because the affliction is often times hereditary. Essential tremor is the result of a brain disorder in which electric signals from the thalmus to the body’s muscles are somehow distorted. The cause is unknown, and there is no cure.

Over the years I’ve tried to conceal it, but not always successfully. Good friends and colleagues have understood when I disclosed it. Others have not and I’m also certain there’s hundreds if not thousands of people who’ve noticed my tremors but never said anything. They likely came away conjuring up dreadful scenarios of drug abuse or alchoholism. Well, they’re partially right: I am an alchoholic. Although tremors are a side effect of alchohol abuse, essential tremor may have been a partial cause of my alchoholism. It turns out that a significant percentage of essential tremor victims become alchoholics in part because alchohol is the most effective temporary remedy for essential tremor. Anyway, I’ve been sober for 19 years and proud of it, but I’ve still got the shakes.

In 1990 I first visited a neurologist and received the diagnosis of essential tremor. Since then I’ve tried just about every pharmaceutical remedy known to modern medical science, with little success; they made me either drowsy, or goofy, or nauseous, or all of the above. I most recently stopped taking something called Oxazapam after a 9 year regimen! Other ideas such as hypnosis, accupuncture, etc. have not proven successful.


THE PROCEDURE
To you doctors in the audience, please forgive any and all medical misinformation contained herein. There are 2 main surgical remedies for essential tremor:

1. Thalamotomy - (Also known as the Michael J. Fox procedure) Surgeons drill a hole (or 2) in your skull, locate the brain cells that cause the tremor, and destroy them.
2. Thalamic Stimulation – Surgeons drill the holes, locate the brain cells in question, and implant electrodes which are then connected to stimulation devices implanted under the collar bones.

Because the Thalamotomy has a higher risk factor for side effects and is permanent, I’ve chosen what’s behind door #2. Otherwise known as Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), this procedure is highly effective in treating essential tremor. Of course the flipside is I’ll be a partial cyborg with sophisticated electronics hardwired into my brain; now I can look forward to fearing microwave ovens and airport security. One wag suggested my arms may go up and down when I click the garage door opener...


THE SCHEDULE
6/25/04 Preoperative exams and testing
6/29/04 electrode implants
7/20/04 stimulation device implants
TBA stimulation device programming


THE MESSAGE
So with exactly one week to go before they start drilling, I’m beginning this blog. I’ll endeavor to keep you informed as I go with perhaps not-quite-daily updates on the entire experience. Then hopefully months down the road you’ll receive from time to time an update on how I’ve experienced some task or event with steady hands and the feeling of joy that will certainly accompany it. Or better yet, I’ll experience it in your company, and we’ll share that along with other memorable moments that make up our lives together.

Cheers!
Hank