20/09/2026
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME
This was my reality 4 months after my DBS implantation—a wound that refused to heal for more than a year.
I fought to save my DBS. Different antibiotics, treatments, procedures, and months of hoping that the wound would finally close.
Eventually, the infection won.
The DBS Medtronic device had to be removed.
And then something remarkable happened.
Within just 4 weeks after the removal, the wound finally healed.
But there was a price.
Without the DBS, my Parkinson’s medication had to be increased dramatically, and even with the increased medication, the benefit lasts only about 2½ hours before the symptoms start coming back. Wearing-off and shorter medication benefit are recognized problems in Parkinson’s as the disease progresses.
So here I am.
The wound healed.
But Parkinson’s became harder to manage.
I lost my DBS, but I gained a healed scalp.
I lost medication freedom, but I gained freedom from an infection that wouldn’t let me heal.
Sometimes life doesn’t give you a complete victory.
You win some. You lose some.
But as long as I’m still standing,
I’m still fighting. 👊