Niamh Shackleton
Terry Crews' wife has opened up about her Parkinson's disease diagnosis for the first time after being diagnosed with condition over 10 years ago.
Rebecca King Crews, who has been married to White Chicks and Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor Terry for nearly four decades, has been quietly battling Parkinson's since 2015 but has only now gone public with her diagnosis.
Rebecca first started showing signs of the disease in 2012, and one of the first symptoms she had being numbness in her left foot while working out.
Her doctor thought she might have been over doing it at the gym, but then her trainer noticed that her left arm wasn't swinging as much as her right during certain exercises, says TODAY.
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Then one morning Rebecca was putting lip gloss on and she noticed her hand was shaking. She knew it was a tremor as her grandmother had them too.
Despite this, her doctor thought it was just anxiety while a neurologist wasn't sure what was going on. It took three years for Rebecca to finally be diagnosed with Parkinson's after she saw a specialist.
One of the most difficult parts of the illness is the tremors she has been experiencing over the years and, just when she thought there was no hope that her Parkinson's would improve and Rebecca's now undergone groundbreaking treatment that's helped with her symptoms.
The treatment is something known as focused ultrasound. As per the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, this treatment is 'a noninvasive, therapeutic technology with the potential to improve the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients with symptoms secondary to Parkinson’s disease'.
"This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasonic energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the brain without damaging surrounding normal tissue," the foundation's website further explains.
Rebecca had this treatment last month and has already seen some improvements. This is why she has now decided to go public with her diagnosis.
"The only reason I’m going public is because I finally have some uplifting information to offer," the 60-year-old told PEOPLE.
Rebecca has had the treatment on her right side and will return to Stanford Hospital in Stanford, California, in October to have her left side treated.
Discussing the procedure, Dr. Vivek Buch, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University, said: "It’s very cutting edge. And I think [Rebecca] did it for others as much as she did it for herself.
"Not for publicity, but to be part of moving the field forward so others can also benefit from this new therapy."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Parkinson's Disease Association via [email protected], or call its hotline on 800-223-2732.