Blazing New Triails: My Journey with Dr.Gates

 

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share an update about my new neurologist, Dr. Gates. I feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to work with him.

Back in April, I had my first appointment with Dr. Gates. Along with the usual HD-type tests, he also conducted an eye test, which was new for me. During our conversation, Fernando mentioned that he’d noticed that I had a stiff neck and a peculiar way of turning my head. The eye test and other evaluations revealed a weakness on my left side, which was mind-blowing to discover. On that first appointment Dr. Gates gave me some simple brain exercises to do throughout the day, and he also recommended a vitamin to help manage my stress and keep me calm.

Dr. Gates also put me on a very strict anti-inflammatory paleo diet for the first four weeks, similar to an elimination plan, to identify which foods affected me negatively. I met with him weekly during this period, and every week I saw significant improvements. By my last appointment, I had gone from not being able to walk heel-to-toe in line without falling to my left, and balancing on a board with my eyes closed without falling, to being able to do these tasks without any issues.

Initially, I had hyperreflexia, which is an overactive reflex response, and palatal paralysis that caused swallowing and choking problems. My eye movements were jerky, especially to the left. However, after five weeks, I experienced almost full recovery in all these areas. Dr. Gates was thrilled with my progress, especially since paralysis is typically challenging to overcome. He never made any promises but was very pleased with my hard work and determination.

Now, I meet with Dr. Gates once a month and continue to see improvements with each visit. I’m doing my best to avoid gluten, dairy, soy, corn, sugar, peanuts, alcohol, and almonds, and I genuinely feel much better.

I appreciate everything Dr. Gates has done for me. He is truly my biggest cheerleader, and his passion for his work and patients is evident. I am Dr. Gates' first Huntington's disease patient, although he has extensive experience with Parkinson's patients. He likes to call me his little trailblazer, not only because I'm his first HD patient but also because of my dedication and hard work.

Thanks for reading and being part of my journey. Your support means the world to me.

Thoughts?

C

On Fri, Aug 2, 2024 at 8:29 AM Ashley Fajardo <aafajardo1@gmail.com> wrote:

My next thing I want to share with you all is 

a update about my new neurologist Dr.Gates. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to work with him. I made a appointment to meet with him back in April. I had my first meeting with him and he took the usual test, but he also took a eye test which was new to me. We also talked about how Fernando noticed that I had a stiff neck the way I turned my head. But with the eye test and other tests I found out that I had a weakness to my left. That was mind blowing to find out. So he gave me some simple brain exercises to do as much as I could through the day. He gave me a vitamin to help with my stress and everything else to help me stay calm. He put me on a very strict diet for the first 4 weeks similar to a elimination plan to see what foods affected me and what ones didn't. He put me on a anti inflammatory paleo plan. I met with him every week for the next 4 weeks. Every week I had huge improvement. By my last appointment I had gone from not being able to walk heel to toe with out falling to my left. I was unable to balance on a board with my eyes closed I fell to the left. But now I could do that with no help or falling. I had at first a hyperflexia in my, which is a over active reflex response. I also had a palatel paralysis in swallowing and choking. My eye movements were not smooth and were jerky to my left. However now after the 5 weeks I have had almost full recovery in all of these areas! My doctor said that usually when someone has paralysis it's hard to get out of so he was very excited about me when I had such great results. He never made any promises but he said that he was very pleased with all of my hard works. I have been meeting with him once a month now and I have been having still more improvement with every visit. I am still doing my best to eat without gluten,dairy,soy, corn, sugar, peanut, alcohol and almond. I do feel much better. 

I appreciate everything dr gates has done for me, he is truly my biggest cheerleader now and he loves his work and patients and you can tell. I am Dr. Gates first Huntington's patient but he has lots of Parkinson's patients that he works with. He likes to call me his little trailblazer because I am his first hd patient and also because I have worked so hard.