Advertisement “We didn’t go out as much because I was sloppy,” Kelleher said. “I felt embarrassed.”
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Dr. Gregory Fischer checks Joe Kelleher’s coordination during a follow-up appointment to Kelleher’s deep brain stimulation surgery at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center. Kelleher wears electrodes and has continuous stimulation to reduce his essential tremor. Dick Riniker photo |
When he played cards with friends at the Eagles Club, the 65-year-old Onalaska, Wis., man would have someone else deal because the cards flew all over.
Shaving wasn’t easy either.
“It was hard to do anything,” Kelleher said. “My eating was all over the place. I couldn’t be a pallbearer because my hands would jump so bad. I thought I could control it, but I couldn’t.
“I wanted to be a carpenter, but I never could get my wife to hold the nail,” he said, chuckling.
Kelleher has struggled with an essential tremor for 35 years. At first the shaking of his head, arms and legs was hardly noticeable. But as he got older, the tremor became more bothersome and almost debilitating at times the past few years.
“My mother had it, too, and real bad,” Kelleher said. “My hands and legs were the worse for me, and I’d have a little bit of tremor in my head, but not as much as my mother.”
Kelleher had some control with medication, but side-effects such as sleepiness were too much for him.
“I couldn’t do a lot,” he said. “I’d get tired all the time. I’d fall asleep mowing the grass.”
In 2006 when Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center began offering deep brain stimulation surgery as part of a movement disorder program, Kelleher was convinced the treatment was right for him. “I met with a patient and saw what a difference the surgery made for him,” Kelleher said.
Deep brain stimulation is a treatment in which a surgeon implants a device, known as a brain pacemaker that sends electrical impulses to specific parts of the brain to control the tremor.
Kelleher had his first surgery on the left side of his brain on Nov. 3, 2006. On March 23, 2007, he had the procedure repeated on the right side of his brain.
“They drill a hole in your head and electrodes are hooked up to a generator or pacemaker implanted just below my left shoulder,” Kelleher said. “I noticed the difference right away.
“It’s made a big difference in my life,” he said. “I shake just a little bit now. I still get lousy cards, but now at least I can deal them.”
Kelleher demonstrates the before and after effect of surgery to others. He has a remote control, which he touches to his pacemaker, to turn on and off his tremor almost immediately. (See a video of the demonstration by viewing this story at www.lacrossetribune.com/health.)
He likes to demonstrate with a coffee cup and a spoon inside. When his device is turned off, his hands and the cup shake violently. When it is turned back on, he brings the cup to his mouth with steadiness.
“It almost seems like magic, doesn’t it?” Kelleher said. “No one would ever know I had a tremor.”
Kelleher said he uses the remote control to shut off his device at night when he goes to bed. He doesn’t have any trouble sleeping.
“I can comb my hair now without hitting my head and brush my teeth without doing my whole face,” Kelleher said.
His wife, Helen, added: “His shirts are cleaner now because he can eat without making a mess and doesn’t break as many glasses.”
Movement disorder program growing at Gundersen Lutheran
By TERRY RINDFLEISCH | La Crosse Tribune
Deep brain stimulation is part of a movement disorder program developed at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center.
Dr. Yannick Grenier, a Gundersen Lutheran neurosurgeon, was hired to perform deep brain stimulation surgery, which led to a program with multidisciplinary care for a range of movement disorders, including tremor, dystonia and Parkinson’s disease.
“We had everything we needed for a program except for a movement disorders surgeon, and once we hired Dr. Grenier, the challenge has been to put it all together,” said Dr. Gregory Fischer, a Gundersen Lutheran neurologist.
Grenier has performed 12 of the procedures and is scheduled to do two more Friday.
Patients with Parkinson’s disease will benefit from deep brain stimulation, Grenier said. “We’ll consider patients whose symptoms cannot be adequately controlled by medication or have trouble with the side effects of medication,” she said.
Symptoms of Parkinson’s include tremor, rigidity and posture instability. Grenier said deep brain stimulation will not cure Parkinson’s but will improve a patient’s quality of life.
Dr. Mark Domroese, a physician specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation, said it is unique for a nonacademic center such as Gundersen Lutheran to offer the surgery and a multidisciplinary movement disorders program.
“The surgery is great, but it’s not going to be for everybody,” Domroese said. “We don’t take this surgery lightly. It has to be done at the appropriate time.”
The program offers a range of services from imaging, speech and voice therapies to botox and surgery.
