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As the morning light caught the glint in Laurie Lowenstein’s eye, she smiled as she thought about her life after successful brain surgery for essential tremor.

“I made a mental list of what I was doing this morning: I could brush my teeth with one hand, put on mascara, cut melon,” she said. “And the most dramatic thing, the most pleasure I get, is being able to write again. it used to be torture to do that. Now it’s a pleasure, to actually be able to write a letter.”

at 62, Lowenstein had suffered from essential tremor for nearly 20 years. Her symptoms, which increased with age, included an inability to execute activities requiring fine muscle usage, from holding a glass to applying makeup. by the summer of 2010, her hands shook almost uncontrollably.

according to the Essential Tremor Foundation’s website, “essential tremor, also known as familial tremor, benign essential tremor or hereditary tremor, is a progressive neurological condition that causes a rhythmic trembling of the hands, head, voice, legs or trunk. it is often confused with Parkinson’s disease and dystonia. Because of stereotypes and a lack of awareness, many people with ET never seek medical care though most would benefit from treatment.”

“For a while, it was manageable with medication,” Lowenstein said. “”nderal (a nonspecific beta blocker used for treatment of hypertension) worked for a number of years. if I had a glass of wine, the tremor would go away.”

Lowenstein says she inherited her tremor from her father. when the Inderal stopped being effective, she was put on Biotin, which didn’t work. She had painful Botox injections in her arms, which were ineffective.

“My neurologist never told me about surgery, and on the essential tremor websites, it was very hard to find information about surgery. I was in resignation mode. I figured, I am stuck with this..”

“Really hard days”

But a friend recognized the tremor and told Lowenstein that her father had a surgery known as deep brain stimulation for treatment of Parkinson’s disease symptoms.

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according to the Mayo Clinic’s website, deep brain stimulation is a brain (neurological) treatment in which mild electrical signals stimulate your brain. The signals reorganize your brain’s electrical impulses, causing improved symptoms in many conditions affecting your brain. You may have deep brain stimulation on one or both sides of your brain, depending on your condition.”

Neurosurgeons first used deep brain stimulation in the United States in 1997.

DBS helps manage symptoms, but it’s not a cure, according to the Mayo Clinic website. Benefits of DBS include symptom relief, the need for less medication and few side effects. Complications and risks could include bleeding in the brain and stroke.

Lowenstein contacted doctors at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, where her friend’s father had had DBS surgery. The next day, she had two appointments — one with neurologists to see if she would make a good candidate for surgery, the other with a surgeon, Dr. Robert R. Goodman, associate professor of clinical neurological surgery.

Goodman said there would be a few really hard days after the surgery, but that the tremor would go away.

on Sept. 13, Lowenstein had the first phase of the DBS surgery at Columbia University Medical Center: Insertion of leads, which Lowenstein described as being “like little fine nails,” with wires attached to them, into both sides of the brain.

The “really hard days” began during surgery because the patient must be conscious to determine when the surgery is succeeding in relieving the tremor. Lowenstein received only a sedation IV. during surgery, Goodman asked Lowenstein to raise her right hand, and then her left; each time, after an initial tremor, the shaking stopped.

One week later, she returned to the medical center for implantation in the chest of the neurostimulator to control the tremor. One week after that, the neurostimulator was turned on.

“I got my life back”

Since then, Lowenstein has had what she called “two tune-ups,” which regulate the amount of ampage her implant receives. She is at 2.5 on a scale up to 10. The tremor will increase as she ages, so that the ampage will need to be increased. Numbness of the tongue, slurred speech and balance problems can accompany increased ampage.

Goodman said the benefits of DBS are underappreciated by potential patients and their neurologists.

“Pretty much all who have done the surgery wish they had it earlier because there is significant suppression of tremor, and the chance of serious complications is low,” Goodman said.

“Was it worth it? Absolutely, no question about it. I am 98 percent better. The only thing I notice is that my voice is gravelly now,” Lowenstein said.

as to why the essential tremor organizations do not make it easy to learn about DBS on their websites, Lowenstein said she was told “”by the ET Foundation that they don’t want to endorse any treatment.”

But she is happy to.

“It’s a miracle,” she said. “I got my life back.”

A life resumed: Surgery rids woman of longtime tremors