You've had a tremor since you were 3, but you weren't diagnosed with essential tremor until you were an adult. How were you diagnosed?

In my late thirties I started getting headaches, and my mother suggested I see a neurologist. Before he asked about my headaches, he said, "You know, you have essential tremor." The neurologist then prescribed different medications, which didn't work.

Did you ever tell people you had essential tremor?

I never developed an easy way to talk about it. At times I would tell myself I was going to say something. I would have this whole conversation in my head, which sounded normal and casual, but then I'd chicken out and not say anything.

How did you learn about focused ultrasound?

I happened to see a story online about someone who had FUS in Israel. It was a five-minute news video that showed someone whose hand shook uncontrollably before the procedure holding a cup of water afterward with no shaking.

How did you prepare for the procedure?

I talked about it with my neurologist, who explained what it entailed and described the possible side effects. He told me that they only do one side of the brain at a time, so only one hand would be affected. He also told me that my head would be shaved completely. He said potential side effects include problems with balance and depth perception when reaching for objects. He also said there's a chance it won't work. Then he told me I'd have to do a CT scan to measure the thickness of my skull to see if I was a candidate. If it was too thick, the ultrasound waves wouldn't penetrate as effectively. [FUS is a newer surgical option for essential tremor if medications have failed. The alternatives are deep brain stimulation and, less commonly, gamma knife surgery and thalamotomy.]

What do you remember from it?

The first two parts—shaving my head and having a halo screwed into my skull—were traumatic. I was as shaved as a cue ball. Then they screwed a halo into my head in four places. After that, they wheeled me to a neurosurgery facility two blocks away. I was awake during the surgery so they could see how much ultrasound to apply. Before the first wave, I drew a spiral so they had a baseline of my tremor. After each wave, I drew the spiral again until I could draw it perfectly.

What happened after the surgery?

The first thing I did was drink water from a small paper cup. Normally it would go flying, but I watched my hand reach for it with no tremor at all. For the next six weeks, my balance was off and I kept overreaching for things.

How are you today?

As horrible as it was to talk about my tremor, now that it's gone in one hand, I love talking about it. I use my right hand, which still shakes, as an example of how bad my tremor was. I hold it out and it shakes all over the place. Then I hold out my left hand and it doesn't shake.

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For more information about focused ultrasound, see How Focused Ultrasound Works.