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When Graham was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at 47, the news was shocking for him and Bronwyn his wife, but Parkinson's has taken their lives in a direction that neither of them could have imagined when they got the news
Graham was working as a security officer at a hotel when he realised something was wrong. “When taking my daughter to school in the car, I noticed that when I tried to undo the lock my hand started to shake and naturally I was concerned. When I eventually went to the doctor and he told me I had Parkinson's disease, the news was not good, not good at all.” I had to give up my job because I couldn’t do CPR or things like that.”
Following Graham’s diagnosis, he was prescribed medication to manage his symptoms as is standard practice, but for Graham the medication had a rare side effect - he began to gamble compulsively. Bronwyn recalls the shock of finding out that Graham had been secretly using their savings to gamble.
“I found out in 2002” Bronwyn said. “We had saved a specific amount of money in a special account to earn interest, left it there and never used it. But unbeknown to the rest of the family Graham had been taking it out, and taking it out. You can imagine the shock because he had never done anything like this in his life before. And since having the deep brain stimulation surgery he’s never done it again either, which goes to show that it was most definitely related to taking the medication. The neurologists we visited had never mentioned the possible side-effects associated with certain medication. But when using the computer and I started really looking, I found a lot of information was readily available through various USA university websites.”
Many people advised Bronwyn to leave Graham because of his gambling. But as Bronwyn says “Even though every man and his dog was telling me to leave my husband – I don’t think you can do that. I was diagnosed with cancer in December 2000 and had a grade 4, 5 cm breast tumour. I had three months of chemo before they would even do the radical mastectomy and then I had months of both chemo and radiotherapy after that. Graham was so supportive of me – and it’s a two-way street isn’t it? My attitude is that if we are going to stay together – which we certainly are – we will be supportive of each other no matter what. For better or worse.”
When Graham and Bronwyn heard about deep brain stimulation they jumped at the chance. Graham explains “We heard about deep brain stimulation and after I spoke to a neurologist specialising in movement disorders, I decided straight away to have the operation. It really wasn’t a choice - you either do it or you suffer. The surgery wasn’t too bad. I didn’t enjoy it of course – who does? But I knew what was ahead of me so I accepted it and I was young and strong enough to handle the surgery which helped.”
Since the surgery in June 2005 Graham has been a new man.” Virtually before I left hospital, two weeks from the first operation, I had some idea that it was working. I was grinning so that was a good sign! It’s a completely new life. Physically I can do almost anything now and it’s better than I imagined. I don’t take any of those medications whatsoever.”
Bronwyn is equally as enthusiastic about the results. “It has been amazing. Out of this world. Ever since the day he got home he has had his facial expression back, he’s humorous, he’s just cheeky! “He is just totally, totally different and we’re all so excited to have him back again.”
The views expressed in this story are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect views held by Medtronic or the EPDA.
