Originally Posted by stevem53

As I recall, the first stage prior to surgery was to meet my new MDS/programmer, for an examination, and questions about symptoms..I do not recall whether or not I was required to be on or off..But I do recall going there off meds for about 6 hours after I woke up..I go to bed in off condition, so if I were to count that it would be about another 8 -10 hours..After an examination he asked me to take my meds, and waited to see how long they took kick in, and to see how bad the dyskinesia was, and another examination when I was instructed to be in on condition..That was a long day, and I was trashed at the end of it..It is a 68 mile commute to Boston from here, and the traffic is so bad during the rush hour, and hour and 15 minute commute could turn into 3 hours..Then they had me come in for the psych evaluation..I came in on meds, and a psych nurse spent about two hours with me asking all kinds of questions..Remember these 5 words, and in 15 minutes I am going to ask you to tell me what they were..Count backward 7-100..7-93..7-86, etc, and all kinds of other stuff..Then I came in for an MRI, to find and target problem areas in the brain, and to see what going on up there..Then come the day of surgery..Some folks here had good painless experiences..That was not the case with me..After they shaved my head, the next step was to put the halo brace on..This was brutal..They gave me 14 injections in my skull of I think Lidocaine?..Novacaine?..Whatever..This woman was in the learning process, and was being instructed by an anestetic specialist where to place the injections, and how to administer the injections..She stuck the needle down to my skull bone, and backed off a little bit, and inject..It hurt like hell until after she injected the numbing agent, but it didn't matter cuz, most of the pain had already been felt when she stuck the needle in my head


Then the placement of the halo brace..There were 4 screws with sharp points on them, and two screws with pads on them..Those went into the ears to center the brace..That Dr screwed those things so tight into my ears that I thought my head was gonna pop, and Im telling him to back those screws off and he said, “don't worry this won't take long”..Now he starts screwing in the screws that secure the brace, and in a couple of spots my scalp wasn't numb enough, so here comes that needle again..Finally he got all the screws in, and he loosend up those pads in my ears..He waited a few minutes and then he grabbed a hold of that halo and started yanking on it like a football player, and then he bolted it to the bed..My head was on a bit of a downward angle, and it was uncomfortable..They had stuck a picc line in my arm in incase I needed to be sedated..I never got a drop of it..The drilling didn't bother me much..It was the noise the drill bit made, and the sound of the thing grinding into my skull, and the feeling of him wiggling the drill bit out of my skull..That was when I realized, this is really happening


To me it was a grueling process that wears you out and drains you mentally..They asked me if I wanted to stop halfway through, and come back another day..I though to myself, no f-ing way are they putting that halo brace on me again!!..SoI told them to continue..I also told them I didn't care what it was going to take to tough this out, and get it done today, I was willing to do whatever it took..I didn't know that the leads were in my brain until they told me..Didn't feel a thing..Then they stapled me up and I was done..19 staples on each side, which wasn't bad


So, there were some parts of the procedure that were not exactly pleasant, but I got through it, and it was worth ever minute of the surgery, for better or for worse, because it was very successful, and I got my life back..Not everyting is perfect, but I am miles away where I was from prior to surgery..I would do it again if I had to