A New Hope for Parkinson’s Patients
Rebecca Crews, the wife of actor Terry Crews, has shared her journey with Parkinson’s disease and the groundbreaking treatment that has significantly improved her quality of life. The 60-year-old recently underwent a non-invasive procedure called focused ultrasound (FUS), which uses sound waves directed into the brain to target and reduce symptoms of the condition.
The treatment has helped Rebecca regain control over daily tasks that she had struggled with for years. She told a magazine that the breakthrough has restored her ability to write and stopped the shaking she experienced on the right side of her body. “I feel good. I’m able to write my name and my dates, and I’m able to write with my right hand for the first time in probably three years,” she revealed.
Rebecca has been living with the neurodegenerative condition for the past 11 years of her 36-year marriage to Crews, 57. However, she only recently went public with her diagnosis because she felt ready to share some positive news.
During an interview, Rebecca recalled the moment her husband suggested she try FUS. “I was kneeling by my bed, praying and crying because I had not slept in several nights and was just ready to die,” she said.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive, incurable neurological disorder that causes muscle stiffness, slowness of movement, tremors, sleep disturbances, chronic fatigue, and can lead to severe disability. Michael J. Fox was famously diagnosed with it at age 29 in 1991.
“It’s a very cool, emerging technology,” said Stanford University neurosurgeon Dr. Vivek Buch about FUS. “It gives [Parkinson’s patients] back control over the simple things in life like eating and putting on clothes that you don’t realize how important they are until they’re taken away from you.”
The treatment lasts for five hours, and on the day of Rebecca’s procedure, Crews was overseas for work. Although he couldn’t be there in person, he stayed on the phone with doctors while Rebecca was in the MRI scanner.
“I stayed on the phone the middle of the night in Australia as the doctor was giving me progress reports. When I finally heard she made it out and everything was ok, it was a beautiful moment,” he recalled.
Rebecca noticed improvement almost immediately after the treatment. She shared that results came within hours. “I was at the hotel [near the hospital] and as I was trying to put my pants on I realized that I could lift my leg without holding onto a table or anything. And then I realized that I could write and sign my name in perfectly legible handwriting. I couldn’t do any of those things before [having the procedure],” she explained.
She will undergo a second procedure for the left side of her body in September. “It’s definitely been hard to watch her on those days when I see her so worn out by this,” Crews said. “We’re going through this together.”
Rebecca revealed her first symptoms appeared around 2012, manifesting as numbness in her left foot, which became a limp. Her doctor believed the limp was due to working out too much, but she said her personal trainer noticed her left arm wasn’t “swinging as much as her right” during some exercises.
The star, who shares five children with the America’s Got Talent host, said she later noticed her hand shaking when she applied lip gloss, which she instantly recognized as a tremor because “my grandmother had tremors.”
