I first met Beth Sinclair about two months ago. She had read my columns on Parkinson’s including the series on Deep Brain Simulation surgery.

She had further questions about the surgery including whether I thought it had been worthwhile.

She said my reply was, “I wish I had undergone the surgery sooner.”

That simple statement convinced the 51-year-old Fountain Hills resident to undergo the procedure to ease her symptoms caused by Parkinson’s Disease.

When she first thought something was wrong with her body, she couldn’t get a doctor to commit that she had Parkinson’s.

She had the first signs of the disease in 2009. Her big toe kept sticking straight up. She then started getting tremors in her left hand.

She first went to her general practitioner, then to two neurologists.

“One doctor told me I was too young to have Parkinson’s,” she said. She was 46.

I was 47 when the neurologist told me I had Parkinson’s.

She had different diagnoses from different doctors. She was told she probably had a brain tumor by one doctor, Multiple Sclerosis by another. Then a neurologist told her she had Parkinson’s.

Taking too much Sinemet can cause many problems. It’s the main medication used in treating Parkinson’s.

It is highly addictive. It is the pill that supplies manufactured dopamine to the body which stops your tremors and gives you the ability to walk. But, too much of it can cause dyskinesia, which was the major problem I had before the DBS surgery.

Beth was at the point she had to consider DBS surgery if she was ever to have any quality of life again.

Before the surgery she was taking 31 pills a day. I told her I had been on 39. My dyskinesia was so bad my head constantly moved from side to side and my body would twist so bad, I would sometimes fall out of a chair I was sitting in.

One qualifier to become eligible for the surgery is that you have to be dopamine responsive. Beth and her husband, Ted, chose Barrows Neurological Institute to do the surgery. They attended a series of classes.

DBS surgery involves drilling through the skull in two places through which electrical leads are placed at critical points in the brain.

The holes that are drilled are filled with plugs. They protrude about half an inch. I call them my horns.

Mine show when my hair gets wet. But since my surgery they have made them shorter so you no longer have bumps.

The wires are connected on the other end to a battery powered device placed in the chest. The device supplies an electrical impulse to the points in the brain that control the tremors and other motor skills.

When I had my DBS surgery in August 2011, I had three separate surgeries, each a week apart. Beth had everything done in one 3-1/2 hour surgery. And they put her to sleep during the worst part. That is when they bore through the skull. I was awake through the entire process.

Beth was most nervous about the “drilling through the skull” phase of the surgery.

But when she got wheeled into the operatping room, an anesthesiologist told her not to worry, he would take good care of her. He put her to sleep for that phase of the operation.

She was awakened for the phase of the operation where you have to give hand signals to the surgeon as he inserts the electronic leads in the brain.

When the surgery was complete, the surgeon, Dr, Frederick Ponce, told her husband, Ted, that everything went extremely well.

Three weeks passed before they turned on her device. She already felt better, experiencing “honeymoon symptoms.” Some patients experience for a time the brain’s capacity to tell there is something different going on and the patient feels improvement before being turned on.

She called me after the devise was turned on and

she said she felt fantastic.

“I have more confidence in walking, I have less involuntary body movement and I can drive again,” she said with enthusiasm in her voice.

She said she is a woman of faith and she thanks all the prayer groups and individuals who prayed for her.

“I particularly want to thank Pastor Kent Groethe

and Pastor Dr. Steve Bergeson of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, the entire congregation and others for their prayers and concern during my surgery.”

She also thanked her nurse, Denise Mulvehill, who took care of her at home following surgery. They have been friends since high school. Her husband’s sister, Joyce Davis, also looked after her.

“And then there was my husband, Ted, who took off from his new job for three weeks. He was a fantastic help, giving me support all the way.

Everyone has been so wonderful,” Beth said.