Following Mainstream Science is Pro-Life–My Experience With Neurosurgery

Last updated on: September 21, 2022 at 1:56 pm by Julie Nichols

Following Mainstream Science is Pro-Life–My Experience With Neurosurgery 2022-09-21T13:56:16-05:00 Julie Nichols

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Following Mainstream Science is Pro-Life–My Neurosurgery Experience

♬ original sound – The Neuro-Catholic MamaBear

Good Morning,

I’m Julie Nichols, the Neuro-Catholic MamaBear. Today I will speak of my personal experience with Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery which is a good example of following mainstream science and the medical consensus. In a future post, I will speak of my husband and I raising a son with Autism and how vital following mainstream science was in his case.

In 2012, The Baylor College of Medicine diagnosed me in a pre-morbid state with early-onset Parkinson’s Disease. After 12 years of being misdiagnosed, sent to doctor after doctor, and dismissed, I didn’t know if I could take another step. Our children were still in elementary, middle, and high school at-the-time. I had to take a leave of absence from work to finally receive my correct diagnosis in Houston, TX, four hours away from where we live in San Antonio. TX. I will never forget the look on my husband’s face and on the face of Movement Disorder Clinic at the Baylor College of Medicine. They were devastated upon a confirmation of Parkinson’s Disease while I was elated to finally receive the correct and final diagnosis. I knew it was Parkinson’s Disease the moment my body responded the Carvidopa-Levadopa, a synthetic form of Dopamine developed in the 1960s. The response was so dramatic that I was crippled over and not able to sit up to then running down the hall and performing jumping jacks. Watching the tears in my husband’s eyes and in the eyes of the doctors, I asked them, “What are you all so upset about? I am elated to finally be correctly diagnosed and treated. It’s time to celebrate!” A trial of Carvidopa-Levadopa is many times a confirmation of a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. The movement disorder clinic just wasn’t expecting Parkinson’s Disease in a 41-year-old female. I am 50 now. (picture of my Parkinson’s tatoo. Yes, I am Catholic, and I have 2 tattoos!)

After the first few years of the initial diagnosis, I was able to return to work full-time and live a stable life with medication timing. But as the disease progressed, the discussion of Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery reoccurred at doctors’ visits. I discovered that there was disagreement within the field of neuroscience as to when the surgery should be done. The older doctors appeared to lean towards a conservative approach of waiting until the advanced stages of Parkinson’s while the youngest doctors thought the surgery should be done within the first few years of the disease. This is when I discovered the importance of the medical consensus and the collective collaboration of the top experts in the field of Parkinson’s neurosurgery. This is why I now follow the consensus in the field of LBGTQIA+ science because it is life and death. It’s also why we followed the medical consensus in regards to our son with Autism who I will talk about in the next post.

After this discovery, my husband I am attended a Parkinson’s conference and listened to the top movement disorder neurologists in the world on the topic of Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery (DBS). Although there was disagreement as to when the surgery should be done, the majority of doctors came to a collective consensus of waiting five years after the diagnosis. Since my doctor projected that I had the disease at least 12 years prior to my final diagnosis, I had the surgery 4 years after my initial and correct diagnosis in 2012. By that time, I was so ready that I literally hopped on the operating table and said, “Let’s do this!” The neurosurgery was a ten-hour surgery with me awake during most of it. I was the first patient in South Texas to receive advanced Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery. I am still doing very well into the sixth year of the surgery because I followed science. God had his hand in my surgery as well, no doubt. My priest laid hands on the surgeon and prayed beforehand.

Here is a video on my experience and an article write up in UT Medicine. Following mainstream science and the medical consensus is pro-life!

UT Health Patient First to Receive New Brain Stimulation System

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