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.

Pledge to get Active

And now for something, somewhat different....

I mentioned in my last post, my wife wants me to sign up for a swim race/event.  After the post and the positive response I got from a number of people, I decided that I thought the idea of doing a race is a great one.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I thought that this would also be a great way to challenge others.  So, I'm putting my legs and arms where my mouth is and challenging everyone in the Parkinson's community to sign up for a race.

I don't care if it's a 5K, a marathon, a bicycle ride, a long swim or something completely different like a dance marathon.  The only condition, is that it has to be a distance/length/time that you have either never done before and/or that you have to keep up your training level to be able to finish.  If you've never done a 5k, sign up for one.  If you feel you cannot run one, walk one.  It doesn't have to be a Parkinson's related race and you don't have to raise money for Parkinson's as part of your training.  This is something for you and your health, because everything I've seen is that the best thing you can do for yourself in order to slow the progression is get active.

I'm not even swimming a mile yet, so I have not yet decided on whether to swim the full 2.4 mile race or just the 1.2 mile race.  However, I am pledging that I will be swimming at the Oceanside Tiki swim in September of 2013.  Currently, the website does not have next year's registration and/or event information for next year.

Nevertheless, considering we are coming up on a New Year, this is the perfect opportunity to make a New Year's resolution to get active.  Do it and I'm sure you will feel better.  Active means getting up and moving.  Just pledge to do something more and something measurable (can you tell I'm an engineer).

Leave a comment if you plan to sign up for something or have already pledged to do an activity.  Remember, this is in your own best interest.  So be selfish and get active.