Early Parkinson's disease is when it affects someone under the age of forty-five. My patient had severe symptoms and was not even fifty. An earlier procedure at an outside institution to place the tip of a Deep Brain Stimulator Probe into a location to stop the tremors resulted in a horrific and dangerous set of mood swings as the underlying limbic system (aggression center) was activated instead.
This life-saving revision was set to be done like the other placements: while the patient was awake.
Typically this is challenging for the anesthesiologist and this case was perhaps the most challenging I had encountered in my career. I checked with our specialist tehnician, and the neurolinguistic mapping that is very technically demanding did not need to be done. But the limitations for their monitoring were still in place: no versed (anxiolytic), and very light anesthesia. (This was hard for me because the patient's mood was depressed in pre-op holding, almost near tears, and the versed is the best for blocking both the memory of the experience and the fear of the O.R.)
We went in, and it was the most stormy set of personalities I had ever encountered. I had the surgeon, who I know well, the physician assistant (whom I have not worked with before), and the new neurosurgery head nurse in the O.R. (who is bossy) telling me what to do. It took a lot of Trust in myself and my Higher Power to take this type of treatment in stride, tolerating the Dense Vibrations of Control, and to keep my focus on the Light and Patient Care.
It starts in a special procedure room, where we sedate the patient and put on a sterotactic frame, which is like a metal erector set on steriods that bolts directly into the head with pins. The patient did not like the 'stimulation' of sharp pins going into the head, and the PA had not given enough local in the locations for the sharp pins to target on the head. Under sedation, Parkinson's tremors stop. But here, it was tremor-not-tremor-tremor with the surgical team panicking saying 'the patient is pushing me, the patient is moving' and 'the airway sounds bad, don't lose the airway (too much anesthesia)'. These patients on neuro medication, especially seizure ones, chew up anesthesia FAST!
We got through the CT scan, on the move, with an ancient monitor that was actually a paddle defibrillator. I had to push the button for each blood pressure (usually it is automated) and the oxygen saturation was really tiny and hard to see across the room. I was giving anesthesia 'blind'.
Back in the O.R., everything settled. The Control Freaks were in prime condition, and feeding off each other. The scrub tech, who likes the Lakers but is not the one I have described previously, and I had made a pact to roll out eyes at each other when the Control Freakishness got too thick. So I crossed my eyes at him, and he laughed. I realized I could not even do THAT anymore without repercussion.
Once awake, the testing of the new probe took effect. Here we are, with the patient's head away from me, trying to see the tremor and change the settings on the dial to stop it. 'Is your arm tingling?' or 'Can you still talks right? Say the days of the week." and the worst, when the electricity in the probe pulled the muscles tight on the patient's face. Setting after setting was tried. It was taking forever!
Taking forever is when I give Reiki most in the O.R. Fortunately, I got to do hands-on this time, because the patient kept getting a cramp in the leg every three minutes (Blood pressure is the most frequesnt thing int he O.R., and typically I keep it every FIVE minutes! LOL). Images of an aged Lucy and Ricky getting his legs massaged 'keep jiggling Lucy, keep jiggling!' flashed in my head as I used the techniques I had learned in massage class to stretch and soothe the aching left leg.
'I am sorry for asking so much for my legs to be rubbed' the patient said,
'That's okay, I like feeling needed' I said, as the Reiki blasted away through my hands and my heart into the patient and into the room.
The tone of the room changed.
We got a perfect result: blockage of tremor in hand and foot, no facial or speech involvement, and no tingling.
The team was amazed to have seen something like this, once in their career. They kept talking in awe about it.
I wasn't. Reiki was behind it all. I addressed the underlying need for the surgery. I asked for Divine assistance in removing the NE's and DE's. I balanced the chakras and gave Reiki, all the time accepting that the patient had a need for Early Parkinson's due to some energy imbalance and Life Lesson. I treated everyone in the room with Dignity and Respect. I held my Vibration of the Light at its highest.*
And we saw a Miracle.
You would think it would end happily ever after for me now, wouldn't it?
It did not. The team bullied me into rushing into the next case. I had worked since noon to eight p.m., with no breaks. I had held my pee for three hours, as I could not leave a patient who was awake.
The surgeon told me 'there was an emergency and anesthesia had to give benadryl to the next patient, NOW!'.
Professionalism is an excuse to abuse physicians. This neurosurgeon clearly had bought the bullshit that 'being totally available and sacrificing yourself to heal your patient' that is in our culture and was imposing it on me who believes that 'everyone can be healed and a healer and be happy'.
The PACU nurse felt sorry for me. My dinner at the hospital was three peanut-butter crackers (like from a vending machine), one tiny Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, and a mini Crackle Bar like you get on Halloween. No liquids. And I started the next case, assisting the senior anesthesiologist who was to relieve me on this teenager with fifteen different drug allergies.
I came home, to dismay from my kids and the sitter. 'I am sorry I did not call or text. The patient was awake and they were putting sharp things in the brain. I could not talk or think of anything but them.'
My dinner was a left-over half bowl of ice cold canned chicken soup on the the kids didn't finish.
Namaste,
Reiki Doc
* this morning as I awoke, I saw that the disease of Parkinson's is vibrational (the shaking in bringing a vibration of some sort from the energetic into the Physical Plane). I saw that the body's vibration (tremor) and the head's (thought processes) did not match. And the stimulator probe goes deep into the brain where the body and the mind connect!
