A previous version of this story incorrectly named the surgeon who performed the operation. The doctor who performed the operation is Dr. André Machado.
Nicole LaBolle was in her 20s when she developed a tremor in her right hand.
She was pregnant with her first child and as her pregnancy progressed, the tremors got worse. Once she gave birth, she couldn’t even use her right arm.
“No one thought it was Parkinson’s because of my age,” LaBolle said, adding that on his 28th birthday he was diagnosed with the disease.
LaBolle reflected on his journey as a young person with Parkinson’s disease in celebration of Parkinson’s Awareness Month.
She is now 39 years old and lives in Pleasantville, Pennsylvania, about 2 1/2 hours from Cleveland, where she underwent a procedure that significantly improved her quality of life.
A pacemaker for the brain
Dr. Andre Machado performed the operation, called deep brain stimulation, at the Cleveland Clinic in November 2022.
Dr. Kristin Appleby is also a neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic who treated LaBolle. She said deep brain stimulation is like a pacemaker for the brain.
“It’s basically drilling a hole in the skull and feeding a wire through,” she explained. “The tip of this wire delivers electrical stimulation to a very specific part of the brain that makes degenerative brain cells work as they should.”
She emphasized that it does not slow the progression of the disease, but treats the tremors experienced by patients, as well as slowing of movements.
Parkinson’s disease is a disease caused by genetic degeneration of brain cells, Appleby said.
The average age of onset of the disease is in the early 60s.
“Obviously, Nicole is very young and younger than average,” Appleby said, adding that symptoms of Parkinson’s disease include tremors, resistance when moving the arms and legs, and sometimes anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, constipation and much more.
28-year-old woman with Parkinson’s disease recalls comparing her symptoms to those of the man she cared for
LaBolle’s tremors date back to his early 20s. It came and went, she said. She attributed it to the three jobs she had at the time.
“I would blame it on caffeine or something, or I would say, ‘I need to eat,'” she said. “I also smoked cigarettes, drank… the whole nine yards because I’m 20 and I don’t have kids.”
When she got pregnant and stopped everything, the tremors got worse.
LaBolle cared for an elderly couple for five years before her diagnosis and told USA TODAY she noticed similarities between herself and the patient she cared for who had Parkinson’s disease.
Her tremors made her tremble like her patient. When she first saw doctors in Pennsylvania, they thought it was a pinched nerve or a mental issue.
But the tremors continued and he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in October 2015.
LaBolle consulted a series of doctors before ending up at the Cleveland Clinic. She said her previous doctors didn’t quite hit the mark and made her feel like she didn’t have many treatment options.
A doctor LaBolle saw previously “didn’t understand that I was in my 20s,” she said. “I want to live my life. I have two babies at home. What am I supposed to do? There were times when I couldn’t do anything but sit up and sit on my hands just to stay still. I couldn’t zip up my own coat or tie my children’s shoes. They had to tie my shoes.
The procedure was intimidating, but ‘I just knew I couldn’t continue like this’
People had been talking to LaBolle about the deep brain stimulation procedure for years, but she always said no.
“Brain surgery was the last thing I wanted,” she recalls.
A doctor in Pennsylvania wanted her to participate in a trial involving stem cell research. She was looking forward to it, but COVID and other factors prevented her from participating.
She was so upset that by the time she sought treatment at the Cleveland Clinic and doctors suggested deep brain stimulation surgery, she had only one answer: “I’m ready.” »
“I was at that point where I would try anything to change my life,” she said. “It didn’t scare me anymore…I just knew I couldn’t go on like this for another year.”
Deep brain stimulation, the procedure she underwent, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1997 to treat Parkinson’s tremors, according to the organization. Parkinson Foundation.
Surgery does not completely resolve the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. However, it can decrease a patient’s need for medications and improve their quality of life.
According to Johns Hopkins, doctors generally recommend surgery for:
- Patients who have uncontrollable tremors and whose medications have not worked
- Patients whose symptoms respond well to medications but have severe motor fluctuations once the medications wear off
- Patients whose movement symptoms may respond to higher or more frequent medication doses but are limited due to side effects
Life after deep brain stimulation surgery
Her family loves the outdoors, and the surgery allowed her to do more with her husband and their two daughters, Willa, 11, and Fawn, 8.
“I still have Parkinson’s,” she warned. “I don’t walk normally. I’m a little stiff. I speak a little differently… But I’m better now than my kids have ever seen. My husband, we’ve been together for 19 years and he hasn’t seen me this good in 10 years.
She can shower whenever she wants. She can dress herself. She can cook dinner and braid her daughters’ hair.
The operation has made it much easier for her to walk and she can ride horses again, something she has always loved to do.
LaBolle wants to advocate for people with Parkinson’s disease because many people are misdiagnosed, as she was initially.
“Actually, a doctor told me it was mental,” she said. “I’m like, ‘I have a baby at home.’ I don’t want to be like that. You can’t tell me it’s mental and throw me out.
She also organizes an annual poker run with her family to raise money for Parkinson’s research and says she is grateful for the deep brain stimulation she received.
“I’m so lucky to have a second chance at life,” she said. “It changed my life. It changed the lives of my entire family.
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She’s from Norfolk, Virginia – 757. Follow her on Twitter at@SaleenMartin or send him an email atsdmartin@usatoday.com.
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