Parkinson's Vaccine: What does it mean for those with PD and those who will eventually get PD

The Parkinson's vaccine that has been developed in Austria by biotech company AFFiRis AG has recently gotten a lot of news.  They announced positive results of a phase one safety study for a vaccine that could slow or even stop the progression of Parkinson's.

While this is great news, the unfortunate thing is also stated in that first paragraph as well, where it states the vaccine may only:

slow or even stop the progression of Parkinson's

 I actually talked to my neurologist about the vaccine and while it will aid new patients who are diagnosed with Parkinson's and may also point to an indicator that can be tested before symptoms begin to appear, the protein alpha-synuclein, this will not reverse the effects of Parkinson's disease, because those cells are already dead and clearing the alpha-synuclein that had a part in their death will not bring them back.

Therefore, for the millions with Parkinson's Disease, we still require a methodology for replacing the dopamine those cells used to produce, via medication/DBS, or the actual cells themselves, via stem cells, gene manipulation or some method someone has not yet thought up.  I don't want to be a downer, this vaccine is great news if it really works; however, for those of us already living with the disease have even further to go.

Also, remember, I am just a patient so take what I say with a grain of salt and discuss it with your doctor.

Surgery delayed

I am currently on anti-platelet medication since I had my heart attack and stent placement in February.  My cardiologist told my neurosurgeon that he wanted me to stay on the drugs, continously, for at least a year.  Thus, my neurosurgeon recommended we wait until next year to do the follow-up surgery to fix my DBS.  Until then, I have it turned off and will basically be taking a my medication and hoping my progression doesn't happen too quickly.  

I also saw my neurologist and she asked me what my goals were for the surgery so that she could go over them with the surgeon and make sure I was being realistic.  I basically have three main goals:

1. Get rid of the dyskinesia that has been increasing as I take more and more medication.
2. Get rid of the tremor during off times.
3. Reduce my total medication intake.

Some might be surprised to see the gait improvements not on there; however, I've been learning over the past year that DBS does not really provide gait improvement.  Yet, by needing less medication over the day, I will have more on-time and therefore will have more time with better gait.

While I hate having to wait 6-8 months for the surgery (my insurance company had already approved the surgery before they had contacted my cardiologist), I know it is the best decision and we want to minimize risks as much as possible.

In the mean time, I am now training for the Mission Bay Triathlon in October and will be able to complete the race since I will not be having surgery before the date of the race.  You can track some of my training progress over in the sidebar, where I will be posting my training runs, bikes and swims to daily mile.