LITTLETON, Colo. — The number of people living with Parkinson's disease in the United States is expected to rise to roughly 1.2 million by 2030, according to the Parkinson's Foundation.
"It's a grieving period process that just happens over and over," said Lisa Cone, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's when she was 45. "I get to a place where I can accept that my life is still good."
The journey to get to this place had a lot of challenges. It all started as a one-sided tremor that evolved into uncontrolled movements and cognitive decline.
"I literally couldn't make my hand write. I couldn't fill out forms, I couldn't write letters, I stopped doing Christmas cards. That kind of thing you don't think of as a loss but it is. It hits you," said Cone.
A recent study by the Parkinson's Foundation found nearly 90,000 people are diagnosed with the disease in the US each year — a 50% increase from their previous estimated rate of diagnoses.
"One of the biggest challenges is actually just simply awareness of the treatments that exist," said Dr. David VanSickle with Neurosurgery ONE at AdventHealth Littleton.
Dr. VanSickle performs a lesser-known treatment called Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). Electrodes are placed in the brain via surgery and connected to a generator that's placed in the patient's chest, which sends signal pulses to the brain, controlling most movement symptoms.
"In the past, the surgery was fraught with complication and was difficult and arduous for patients to go through," said Dr. VanSickle. "The outcomes are great, so it's just simply a matter of making the surgery better."
He said recent changes in the procedure have made it safer and easier for patients.
"We pioneered doing sleep DBS in the state of Colorado. Now, about half of the operations in the country are done that way," he said. "DBS had a 10% infection rate going back 20 years ago, but now the infection rate's a fraction of a percent."
Cone signed up for the surgery when her symptoms became unbearable. She describes the results as life-changing.
"I put on mascara this morning. I signed a check and I deposited it by myself. I was able to take the picture, which is different than it used to be," she said.
Dr. VanSickle hopes more patients experience those improvements, if more know about the procedure.
"I'm getting older, everybody's getting older. If you have Parkinson's, that decline's a little sharper, but the benefit that DBS has always sits on top of it. So even though your quality of life might decline as time goes on, you will always have this benefit sitting on top of that," he said.
He said all major insurance companies cover the procedure. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the surgery for anyone who has lived with Parkinson's for at least four years.
