Two months later, after one canceled trip due to covid contacts in January, finally got my consultation at Sonimodul. It was a 3 day trip, flying from Lisbon to Zurich, Zurich to Solothurn by train on day one, consultation all morning on day two, a walk on Solothurn suburbs on the afternoon (wanted to go to the mountain on the afternoon, but at the time we reached to the cable car, it was only available to go up, the ticket office to come down would be closed), and the third day was to return home! It was a trip with high expectations and a curious encounter! Expectations that i wold be able to do a second side surgery and relieve the symptoms that are worsening a bit on my untreated side.. The encounter was with a member of this group who talked with me one day before and suggested if we could meet because he would like to see me live and talk a bit with me, if he wants to identify himself, he will make by himself. I think this was a very impressive encounter for both us. We meet at Zurich central station, went to tee his workplace and then lunch together, me, Elsa and him. I was impressed how he was so dyskinesic and dysfuncional, with 7 years of Parkinson’s (i was like him one year ago, but not all the time), and i was very, very close to normal. We talked about a lot of things, but even seeing with his own eyes, i believe he was very skeptical with the results. After this meet we went to Solothurn, were we arrived to Alain airb&b, were we stayed one year ago, and once again was superb, it’s an 8 minutes walk from the clinic, and apart from being on the third floor without elevator (that is not a problem for me, but can be for some others), it’s cheap even for non Swiss standards. We get to the apartment at 5pm, planning to go to the supermarket, but for the second time Alain left us a lot of food, that saved us one trip to buy food by the end of the day. Elsa cocked one of the meals, after we took a bath. The house is very cosy, compared with the expected night temperature outside of -6ºC. After an average night of sleep, we woke up early, eated something and went to the clinic. After a short walk, reached the clinic right on time, and went for the evaluation. The usual greetings, i have a big empathy with Dr. Marc, talked about my evolution and Marc was very pleased. I made the Montreal Cognitive test, this time with a 30/30, then the neurological evaluation without any meds, and saw by Marc’s face that he was with a mix between pleasant and impressed, as my face was showing happiness and gratitude. After the examination i went for the brain EEG and took the levodopa dosage, waited a bit while David was putting the electrodes and his futurist helmet and did the exam, while i was trying to be as relaxed as possible. Finished the EEG, waited a bit more for the levodopa to take effect and went back for the second evaluation. Marc was even more impressed, and really happy with the results he was watching. That’s when Elsa started telling me “They are not going to operate you, you are too well”. After this second evaluation, we scheduled the discussion for 13:30 and went for a walk in Solothurn center. Stopped for a coffee, an hot chocolate and two soloturners, a fabulous cake they have there, a bit more walking along the river and back to the clinic. Discussion with Marc about my future. After my evaluation and EEG evaluation, Marc congratulates me, he says my recovery has been remarkable and that i have been really doing my part, reshaped objectives in life, the EEG presents a good pattern, and so, i’m doing so well, they do not see for now the need to operate the second side. What?!!! I didn’t say a word, but my face certainly spoke for myself. That’s not what you where expecting to hear? Well’ not quite, i know my symptoms are not very hard now, but i was expecting to solve them and became quite a normal guy, well i does not work like that, one year is the shortest time that we put between surgeries, but the brain needs more time to heal and you have space to improve even more, the EEG shows that you can make improvements, but they are more achievable trough another things like mindfulness, meditation, phisical therapies, rather than operating the second side right now. Usually when someone is operated and goes well on one side, the tendency is to think well, this hemisphere is done,let’s do the other, but it is not so linear…
Well, looking back it was hard to hear, but i think i understand better now. At least i have a Parkinson’s insurance that i can rely on if i get much worse, it’s called PTT, after all it’s brain surgery we are talking about, it’s not to be faced lightly. So we say goodbye to Marc, to Professor Jeanmonod, David and all that wonderful team. Some things happen because they have to, and i think the meeting the day before changed a lot the perspective on how i really am. Being so close to someone on my situation made me aware that i’m really, really well compared with what i could be right now if i did not fight. I am autonomous, i work, i drive, i run (a lot), i still have some projects, all this at 48 and with 14 years of PD.
Well, it’s time to readjust , put my head up again and grab a life.
At the end of the month I'll be at Sonimodul for FUS evaluation
