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.”
