Deep Brain Stimlation (DBS)

[compucure]

I recently (June2nd) had the DBS op at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Having had PD for 17 years I would say the op has been a success. It is early days yet, but I hope to be back playing golf & tennis in the not too distant future. I can now manage an hour's workout at the gym 2-3 times per week. If anyone has had the op, then I would be really keen to hear from you or perhaps even share my experiences if anyone would like to learn more about it.

Did anyone see the programme on Channel 4 recently "Sex,Lies & Parkinson's"?

[Ronald]

Dear compucure

Iam a parkinson patient for the last 15 years aged 74 having muscle rigidty and stifness with a mild form of camptocormia is the hospital in oxford Ohio i would like to learn more about it how long was the op and what would have been the cost do you have medical insurance

best wishes

Ronald

[Lightning94]

Yes I had bilateral DBS surgery last December.. Everything went very smooth during the operation and the first tuning session. Everyone was very pleased. Then on about the third week an infection became apparent and the surgeon put me on some very strong antibiotics orally. The infection didn't get any better but it didn't get worse either/ So he put on a total of 4 weeks of antibiotics and we waited. In the meantime I gad a total of 3 tuning sessions and had dropped from a total of about 2100 mg of carbadopa down to 675mg. I could get up and walk the minute I woke up. It was totally amazing. However the oral antibiotics didn't get rid of the infection so everything came out and I was put on 24/7 IV antibiotics. Fortunately, this knocked it out. I'm coming up on 6 months and the doc said that should be enough time for any swelling to go down and everything to heal properly. He placed it right on the money the fist time, I hope he can do again this second time.

Now to Ronald. The first surgery was the insertion of the two brain pieces. From the time they took me back until I woke up in recovery was about 6 or 7 hours. I stayed over night and was checked the next day and was given the ok to go home. The second operation was only a week later and was for the placement of the programmer. This only took about 3 hours and I was able to go home that same day. My insurance covered almost 90% of it.