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t m c ยป p u l s e | m a y 2 0 1 8 9 skull in place before she was wheeled into the operating room. Her surgery unfolded in two parts: first, surgeons inserted the electrodes into the thala- mus, which refines movement; and second, they implanted a rechargeable battery pack in her chest that will last up to nine years before it will need to be replaced. Henry's anesthesiologist administered a local anesthesia to the scalp to numb the pain, so Henry was wide awake for the first part of the surgery. Fenoy and his surgical team made an incision across the front of her head and another on the side. They gently peeled back her scalp and used a special drill to bore through the 7.1 mm of bone in her skull. Fenoy then inserted the stimulating electrodes through the holes to her brain and applied the electric current. The result was like flipping a switch. Prior to the surgery, Henry's neurologist, Mya Schiess, M.D., of the Mischer Neuroscience Institute at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, ran a few motor control tests. Henry could barely sign her name, let alone hold a pen. When handed a cup of water, her hand shook so intensely that the water splashed over the side. But after the electrodes were placed in her brain and the thalamus was stimulated, Henry's hand was still and stable, without a single detect- able tremor. When she signed her name a second time, after that part of the surgery, each pen stroke was smooth and clean. Her handwriting was legi- ble for the first time in decades. "[Deep brain stimulation] works amazingly well," Schiess said. "If you have a tremor that is truly interfering with hand function, lifestyle, head or voice, honestly, there isn't a medicine out there that's going to really put you in a better state." Deep brain stimulation helped Henry return to playing the flute. Although her tremor had inter- fered with her quality of life and nearly put an end to her musical career, she refused to quit. "My folks lived through the Depression," Henry said. "If there's anything they taught me, it was that an obstacle is not something that stops you; it's something you find a way around." Thanks to Schiess and Fenoy, Henry has regained control of her body. Her brain stimula- tion device was recalibrated during a follow-up appointment in April and has eliminated, by her estimation, 99 percent of her tremor. "I'm a happy camper. It's the first time I've been able to play a straight tone in years," she said. "It was really nice to feel like I had command of my body." Anna Henry plays the flute in the operating room at Memorial Hermann-TMC, where neurosurgeons performed deep brain stimulation to treat her essential tremor. WATCH HENRY PLAY THE FLUTE DURING SURGERY: tmc.edu/news/flute