essential tremor - Battery power: Procedure restores man's life

[Guest guest]

(Note: Some of us with CMT have what is termed " essential tremor " -

myself included. This man doesn't have CMT, but had " essential tremor " -

this is an article on his hope and 'new life'. +++ GG)

http://www.gazetteextra.com/jackowski091904.asp

Battery power: Procedure restores man's life - By Marcia

Nelesen/Gazette Staff

Some people are wired to go. Jackowski is wired to stop.

Six months ago, the 45-year-old Jackowski shook so violently that he

couldn't drink from a glass without spilling. He couldn't write legibly

or hold food on his fork.

Years ago, he had given away his fly-tying equipment, no longer able to

tie the intricate flies.

Jackowski has a neurological disorder called essential tremors. The

shaking is thought to be caused by some sort of short-circuit in his

brain. The Janesville native first noticed the tremors in his late

teens.

" You're OK until you try to do something,'' Jackowski said. Over the

years, Jackowski's tremors progressed, shaking his hands and then

slurring his speech. Stress made them worse.

Twenty years ago, Jackowski stopped holding anything with his left hand,

which shakes the most. He learned tricks to get by, such as placing his

hands on his knees and then using his legs to steady the tremors.

Jackowski has tried medication to control the shaking. But after 10

years, he never found one that improved it without side effects. The

tremors started affecting his life. His frustration at times overwhelmed

him. He and his wife, Laurie, stopped socializing except for a close

circle of friends.

Jackowski works as a pipe fitter at General Motors and had been getting

by with the understanding help of a good partner. But he was now having

trouble putting a wrench to a nut.

After one last unsuccessful medication-this one caused depression-his

local doctor recommended surgery. The procedure is not new-it was OK'd

by the FDA in 1997-but word is only slowly spreading, Jackowski said.

" A lot of people who have this don't think there's any help for them,''

Laurie Jackowski added. It is the reason the couple came forward with

their story.

Doctors have discovered that an electric current directed through

certain areas of the brain will stop tremors. They don't know why it

works, although they believe it somehow interrupts the misfiring signal.

Laurie Jackowski said the very idea of brain surgery scared her. " I was

skeptical,'' she said. " I didn't know whether he (Jackowski) was going

to come out of it and be a different person.'' But she didn't try to

talk him out of it. " I knew it bothered him so much,'' Laurie Jackowski

said.

The first surgery on April 8 was 13 hours long. Jackowski watched most

of the procedure on television. He got to bring his own music. First,

doctors attached a halo-or frame-to stabilize his head. Then, they bored

two holes about the size of nickels. Medical staff wouldn't let him

watch the actual drilling, but he could feel his teeth rattle. " It

sounded like the bit needed to be sharpened,'' he said with a laugh.

Physicians then threaded five probes down each hole, looking for the

exact spots to plant two electrodes. Jackowski was kept awake because

physicians needed the patient's help. They had to calibrate the

electrodes at the right voltage and watch the effects of their tinkering

as Jackowski moved and spoke.

Once situated, the wires attached to the electrodes were run under the

skin of Jackowski's scalp and anchored behind his ears. The holes in his

skull were capped to act both as seals and to secure the electrodes.

Bandages were fastened with a staple gun.

The operation was so uneventful that Jackowski, after nine hours,

started getting a little bored. The next day-bald but up and

walking-Jackowski amazingly went home.

A week later, doctors planted two batteries near Jackowski's

collarbones. Doctors connected the wires behind his ears to extensions

that ran down his neck, over his collarbones and to the batteries.

Jackowski got to sleep for this one.

After healing for six weeks, his doctor turned him on. The tremors

stopped. Immediately.

" It was emotional, in a way, but I guess it didn't really sink in until

I started doing things that I liked to do and the difference it made,''

Jackowski recalled.

The word " miracle " can be overused but certainly comes to mind when

Jackowski turns himself on and off. There he is, sitting as calm as can

be, sipping a cup of coffee on his patio at Bingham's Point on Lake

Koshkonong. Coffee was off limits before the surgery because caffeine

made his tremors worse.

He firmly grasps a gadget that looks like a remote control-it is

actually a magnet-in his right hand and pushes it against the battery on

the opposite side of his chest. Just like flipping on a light switch,

his hand starts to shake-so much that he can only turn off the second

battery by anchoring his hand against his chest.

His voice begins to slur at the same time. When Jackowski turns himself

back on, his voice and hands steady immediately. He relaxes back into

his chair without a twitch in sight.

Jackowski said the enormity of the operation didn't really hit him until

he took a drink from a bottle and didn't spill a drop. That was the

first of many " wows.''

The only reminders of the procedure are the slight itching around the

holes in his skull and the outlines of the batteries and wires under his

skin.

The batteries will need to be replaced when they wear out in five or so

years. Then, his doctor will cut simple incisions to replace the

batteries and sew him back up.

Jackowski has a good attitude about it all, laughing when people

inevitably ask to see the studs coming from his neck, a la enstein.

The prognosis is excellent that the tremors can be controlled, Jackowski

said. " I'm glad he doesn't have to live with the frustrations anymore,''

his wife said. Jackowski now waits for the final report of an electrical

survey done at GM. Jackowski, a welder, comes into contact with more

energy than most people.

He may have to steer clear of a few areas where the electromagnetic

interference could disrupt his batteries. Meanwhile, Jackowski has been

doing masonry work on the foundation of his home-something he didn't

dream of tackling before the operation.

And he believes he'll take up fly-tying again this winter.