Each person living with Parkinson’s disease (PD) will have a unique journey with their treatments, including the decision to have deep brain stimulation (DBS), which is a surgical procedure to treat Parkinson’s motor symptoms. While DBS isn’t suitable for everyone, it can be helpful in the right person, and it’s a complex, lifelong choice. And although the experience goes far beyond surgery day, brain surgery often looms large in people’s minds as they are contemplating DBS. In this episode, our expert panelists tackle community-sourced questions on DBS surgery day: what to wear, how loved ones can support, what it feels like to be awake during brain surgery and more. Tune in to hear from two people who have had DBS, a neurosurgeon and a movement disorder specialist and learn more about the realities of surgery day.
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Larry Gifford is the co-founder of PD Avengers and a member of The Michael J. Fox Patient Council. He was diagnosed with PD in 2017 and had DBS surgery in 2023, which he documented in his podcast “When Life Gives You Parkinson’s.” In this episode, he leads a discussion with:
Becca Miller, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist, an associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and a member of The Michael J. Fox Patient Council. She was diagnosed with PD in 2013 and had her first DBS surgery in 2021.
Pavan Vaswani, MD, a movement disorder specialist and assistant professor of clinical neurology at Penn Medicine. He’s also a class of 2022 Edmond J. Safra fellow.
Ajmal Zemmar, MD, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and a practicing neurosurgeon.
View a transcript of the podcast.
For more information on deep brain stimulation, download our newly updated, comprehensive guide or check out our webinar.
The Foundation’s landmark study, the Parkinson’s Progression Marker’s Initiative, also known as PPMI, is recruiting volunteers. People from all backgrounds with and without Parkinson’s can help move research forward. Join the study that’s changing everything at michaeljfox.org/podcast-ppmi.