DBS Surgery

Getting Ready
 

Surgery more than four months away- what could I learn, experience, do that would divert me from worrying about it?

Step 1- I found myself on a search for God and the meaning of life.  I talked with the Monsignor of the local Catholic Church (I was raised Catholic); I spent half an hour with him and told him I was ready to die if it was time.  Father Tom Reilly said, “I think God has a larger plan for you-let’s pray for that.”  Nancy and I spent a lot of time talking about God.  She was working hard to get me spiritually ready for surgery.

Step 2-I talked with friends who practiced a very deep faith in God.  They encouraged me to have faith, hope, and a positive attitude.

Step 3-I read, watched, and listened to a collection of books, CD’s and DVD’s that broadened my knowledge of Eastern meditation, thought, and religion.  I began to meditate on a daily basis.  I was more at peace with myself and the world than I had ever been.

I continued to grow.  I was trying to leave no stone unturned.  I remembered an audiotape of a speech by the late Leo Buscaglia in which he describes an old man with no teeth and dirty clothes sitting along the river in St. Louis.  He was the kind of guy most people would pass by without noticing, but Leo, being Leo, was bored with speech after speech at the convention he was attending, so he sat down and engaged this man in conversation.  Finally, Leo asked the man for the one important thing he’d learned in his life.  The man said, “The secret to life is to keep your mind full and your bladder empty.”  Buscaglia said that was the best advice he had received during the entire conference because…”you see, most of us do the exact opposite; we keep our bladders full and our minds empty.”  (Source unknown)

I began to think about the support group I wanted in Gainesville during the surgery.  Family and best friends rounded out the list.  I wrote each a letter in advance letting them know how much I appreciated them giving their time to come to FL to be with us.  My ending paragraph was: "With my love army in tow, I believe I’ll be successful in the surgery and that more will be expected of me regarding reaching out to others.  If something should happen, know that I have had a great life and that I expect each of you to love one another."
      

I was reminded by my daughter of Shelby’s words in “Steel Magnolias”-… “I’d rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.”

The Surgeries

The “wonder boys’, Drs. Michael Okun and Kelley Foote were better in every way than I could have ever imagined.  I would give a testimonial for them ‘at the drop of the hat’.  They were so skilled, so dedicated, and so caring that the two surgeries were not nearly what I thought they’d be.

I was awake for the first one- drilling a hole in my skull, using a camera to pinpoint where the contacts needed to be placed in my brain and clumping the wires at my hairline.  The surgery didn’t begin until Dr. Okun came in.  He was so excited to share with me that his 6 month old son had recognized himself in the mirror.  He said, ‘that’s smart, isn’t it, Alan?’ I was afraid he might go back home to see more. HA! When Dr. Okun came out to tell my family that I had done well and they were almost finished and would be sending me to the recovery room, he reminded them that I might act “goofy”.  Our middle daughter, Allison, said “how will we know?”  After some days of recuperation at the Laurel Oak Inn (our home away from home that is owned and operated by the wonderful Monta and Peggy Burt), we went home to Atlanta to wait for a month for my brain to shrink (it swells when it is tampered with).



The next surgery consisted of bringing the wires under the skin and attaching them to a stimulator that was put into my chest.  We stayed a week and they programmed my stimulator for the first time.

They continued to program my stimulator over a period of six months and I was ‘good to go.’  And go, we did.  DBS provided a great boost to my life.  I began doing things easier and better and happier than I had in years.
                       
We spent time traveling and thoroughly enjoying each day.  We found a church that we loved and became very active members. As the disease progressed, however, I began to slow down and we wondered what our next steps would be.