Jim Barrow and family have a new hope for a better life

  • By Jennifer Kneuss
  • January 22, 2010
  • 1563
                        
At 36 years of age, New Philadelphia resident Jim Barrow had a great future ahead. He had a loving wife, Elizabeth, five young sons ranging in age from 2 to 9, and a successful career as a real estate attorney. Then the tremors began. “I started noticing that one finger on my right hand would twitch and tremble. I noticed it mostly when I drank coffee. It became more and more frequent, and Elizabeth began to notice it, too,” said Barrow, now 47. “We thought it was due to fatigue or something, but it didn’t go away. It became worse.” He went to see a physician, and was eventually diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease. The couple found out that by the time there were visible symptoms, the part of the brain that controls the necessary dopamine release for normal muscle movement had already been permanently damaged. The disease continued to progress, in spite of the medication Jim was taking. “Basically, with the medication, I would take it, it took an hour to kick in, then I had two good hours, then I would be down for at least another hour, then I would have another two good hours. Two hours on, two hours off.” During the good hours, Jim could function with fewer tremors, but when the cycle went downhill, he would find himself shaking uncontrollably, and would often be almost immobilized. He had to constantly time his life activities to account for this, and found himself often withdrawing socially. The constant struggle caused his body to be under a great deal of stress, and he found it difficult to maintain his weight due to the excessive calories his body required. A condition called dyskinesia caused waves of muscle contractions to move through his body. “It wears you down. It is very tiring,” explained Barrow. “Sometimes I couldn’t walk, or couldn’t drive.” He could still work, but it was becoming more and more difficult. “Before the operation, it was a hindrance to my life in general. At work, I spent the two good hours writing at my desk.” Xavier, 12, is the youngest son. “Sometimes when he’d sign me out at school, they could barely read his writing.” “Dad and I like to go in the basement and play musical instruments, to jam a little. But if I wanted to jam, Dad would have to tell me he had to wait an hour or so until his medicine would kick in before he could play with me,” explained Mark Barrow, 14. “Then he’d be fine for awhile.” The boys admitted it was difficult for them to see their father going through the disease. “As a family, there is so much life going on around here. With five kids, and being into sports and everything, I just can’t go around and do whatever I want,” said Jim Barrow. “There are a lot of things I would like to do as a dad. I can’t even stand up and walk across the bleachers normally, without somebody holding my hand, without feeling like I’m going to fall.” “Jim really had to cut back on sailing with Mark, because it was hard to do. Same with the music,” explained Elizabeth Barrow. “As the Parkinson’s disease progresses, people tend to become a little stone-faced. It has to do with the neuron tension. Jim really began losing his sense of humor.” The condition is referred to as Parkinson’s mask. Jim Barrow’s condition began to decline rapidly. His doctors recommended an innovative treatment called DBS, or insertion of a deep brain stimulation device, to take place at the Cleveland Clinic. “Basically, they put you on a table for the operation, and you have to be awake. You have to be able to respond to their directions so they know they have the correct part of your brain. They actually have to put a metal halo around your head, bolt in onto your head, and then bolt your head to the table. You’re stuck. It’s a bizarre feeling.” Just before Jim Barrow went to the hospital on June 14, 2009, for the surgery, he was greeted by a wonderful surprise. Knowing that their dad had to have his head shaved for the surgery, his five sons, Alexander, Nicholas, Paul, Mark, and Xavier, along with a group of their friends, gathered at the Barrow house to shave their heads, also, in a show of solidarity for Jim. Shortly thereafter, Jim Barrow underwent the deep brain stimulation surgery. Now, seven months later, the Barrow family is thrilled with his progression. “Now, as a result of the surgery, I have almost complete control of my hand at almost all times, and I can write all the time,” said Jim Barrow. He can also sail, and play music again. “You have to embrace good things, and this really is a good thing, especially for Jim, and for our family, but also for people out there that may be even more disabled than Jim was. There is hope for a better kind of life,” commented Elizabeth Barrow. “When I first got the diagnosis, I realized I had to concentrate a lot of life into a little bit of time, while I could move freely,” stated Jim Barrow. “So I concentrated on what I thought was most important, mainly my family. As a result, as I think over the last 10 years, I don’t think there is anything that I would have done differently. You start to realize what is the most important things, and throw out the garbage, keep the internal goodness that you need. I concentrated on that, concentrated on my family. Once I did that, everything was perfect.”


Loading next article...

End of content

No more pages to load