The DBS Dance

Between surgery and programming

By Teresa Swartz Roberts

Blog post 66 Copyright 2026

I am between steps in my Deep Brain Stimulation process as I recover from the operations to install a probe in my brain and a battery in my chest. I am not able to take the next step of programming yet. I have to wait.

I feel as if I am a middle school girl who has gotten all dressed up for homecoming. My parents have dropped me off, and I’m sitting along the wall waiting for someone to notice me and ask me to dance.

My post-operative appointment went well. My sutures have all started to deteriorate or finished deteriorating and the derma bond on my skin over the battery in my chest is almost gone. I have lost a few steps because of being immobilized for about a day and 1⁄2 and taking a hit to the gut with system slowdown, which interferes with absorption of my medication. I’m actually a little worse in terms of symptoms than before the surgery.

But I am ready for DBS to show up and take away whatever symptoms it is willing to take. I am ready to join the party. I am ready to dance.

Sounds like I am expecting a miracle, doesn’t it?

It’s what I must do to get me through these weeks of waiting. And I have had miracles before. Carbidopa levodopa was a miracle. Big and Loud therapies were a miracle. Why not DBS? Remember the day I graduated from physical therapy and danced to Bruno Mars? I do.

I am looking forward to the day that my DBS programming shows me some new steps to dance, even if it is a simple shuffle.