Pam Peters couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't bring a fork to her mouth to feed herself. Couldn't tie her shoes. Write her name. Put pillows in her pillowcases.
"I didn't want to live with the symptoms I was having," the 64-year-old says, grieving her life before. "It just seemed impossible."
The Port Huron, Michigan, resident was initially diagnosed with essential tremor – a nervous system condition that leads to rhythmic and involuntary shaking, according to the Mayo Clinic. But she ultimately found out she actually had Parkinson's disease in February 2022 at another health system, six years after her symptoms began.
Parkinson's is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that worsens over time and is incurable. Patients lose dopamine-producing brain cells important for normal movement. Symptoms include everything from speech changes to impaired balance and stiff muscles, though severity varies by person. It's the second-most common neurological disease behind Alzheimer's.
"I saw myself declining, and it really wasn't a happy time," Peters says. "I was rather close to not wanting to be here. But that has all changed since my surgery."
Peters underwent deep brain stimulation – a procedure where a doctor implants electrodes into a person's brain. It's advisable for some Parkinson's patients who have an uncontrolled resting tremor respond unpredictably to medication. The electrodes help regulate movement –a game-changer for patients like Peters and others amid the ongoing fight for medical breakthroughs for neurologic conditions.
Parkinson’s arrived in her 20s.Now, she's thankful for a procedure she was once scared of.
"(Parkinson's is) something that people live with every single day," says Dr. Adam Kuhlman,the medical director of Corewell Health’s Movement Disorders Program in Southeast Michigan. "They don't go very long without being reminded that those symptoms are right there, that are impacting their ability to execute daily activities."
'We've been able to provide her relief'
Parkinson's is typically treated with levadopa, a dopamine-producing medication. Kuhlman otherwise encourages patients to exercise, get enough sleep and seek out social support. But when medication doesn't result in the desired effects – i.e. in Peters' case – other options enter the conversation. Hence deep brain stimulation, which was first approved about 25 years ago for multiple conditions, including Parkinson's.
Peters had a few, rough painful days after the surgery in November, but saw results right away after Kuhlman activated the electrodes a month post-op.
"We've been able to give her and provide her the relief of her symptoms that we would otherwise have been getting with oral medications, but at least for the time being, she's not requiring any oral medications that were causing her so much difficulty," Kuhlman says.
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Patients will typically follow up frequently within the first six months, then they stretch out to every few months to every six months from there.
As for the future of Parkinson's treatment: "A much more attainable goal is having something that's going to be disease-modifying, that is something that's going to be able to slow down progression. Thus far, we don't have anything that's currently available."
Of course, "sometimes it's discouraging not having something more to offer," he says. "But part of the reason why I got into the field to begin with was that this is something where we're seeing so much more attention, we're seeing so much more funding and so much more research and we're just primed for a breakthrough."
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'I don't want to lose what I have'
Now, Peters is more back to her old self. She ate rice on a fork the other night. She's working out three to four times a week and wants to train for the Senior Olympics in her town.
"It's really been incredibly gratifying for me as her physician to see the turnaround that we've had, and finding the right treatment for her and seeing her go from really seeming to struggle and be kind of down with the whole process, to functioning much closer to the way that she was hoping she was going to and being able to participate in the things that she wanted to participate, especially in terms of being physically active," Kuhlman says.
But most important: Between participating in Parkinson's group therapy and the deep brain stimulation treatment, Peters has hope.
"I can't get every moment in enough," she says. "I can't hug enough babies. I want it all right now. I don't want to lose what I have either."
If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call988any time day or night,or chat online.Crisis Text Linealso provides free, 24/7, confidential support via text message to people in crisis when they dial 741741.
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