About two weeks ago, I blogged about the upcoming, live-on-TV brain surgery that fellow Parkie Greg Grindley was about to undergo on the National Geographic channel.
Mental Floss, the publication that co-produced the event, has a follow up on Greg. He’s out of bed and walking around.
I still haven’t seen all of the TV show – we recorded it and I’ve only watched the first hour. But the follow-up article makes some important points:
- The operation will (should) reduce Greg’s tremors so he can do normal, every-day tasks: walk without a cane, eat canned corn, tie his shoes.
- The operation is not a cure for Parkinson’s disease. Greg will still have PD and will still have to take PD meds.
- Doctors (and, I assume, Greg) won’t know for another month or so whether the surgery was successful.
I’ll write more about the TV show when I finish watching it. So far, it’s been fascinating to see live brain surgery and to see Greg awake, alert and responsive on the operating table. But the show hasn’t talked very much about Parkinson’s disease and has said nothing about the challenges Greg will still have to deal with.
There’s been a lot of face time interviews with the (attractive, articulate, talented) surgeons, and the news announcer Bryant Gumbel gets more screen time than anyone else.
More anon…
I missed the broadcast, but will be following your updates!