Fresno veteran's tremors ease with wearable therapy, ready for Valentine's dinner

For the first Valentine’s Day in years, 71-year-old retired Marine Corps veteran Danial Payne of Fresno said he would be able to reach across the table and hold his wife Mary’s hand, a small gesture he once could not do because of worsening tremors. "Just the fact that I could reach across the table and hold her hand," Payne emotionally said. "That was simple. Couldn't do it."

Payne, known in the Valley as the "Voice of the Veterans Parade" for nearly two decades, has lived with tremors for about a dozen years and received a diagnosis of Essential Tremor in 2020. After using a wrist-worn therapy for the past year, Payne reported a dramatic improvement to his shaking and plans to continue using the device to manage his condition and return to community duties and music.

The onset of symptoms came "about a dozen years ago" when the convulsing grew increasingly worse and Payne first noticed troubling trembling during a dinner party, which later forced him to pause his longtime hobby of strumming an acoustic guitar. Payne said the severe shaking also limited his public role in veterans’ events, but after a year with the device he has picked up the guitar again and feels able to resume some of his parade duties.

The device Payne uses is the Cala kIQ System, a wearable, non-invasive wrist therapy developed by Cala Health that is designed to replicate a timepiece. "It actually measures patient's tremors using motion sensors on board the device, and then delivers stimulation to the median and radial nerves at the patient's wrist in order to send the signal to the brain that actually interrupts the tremor and provides them relief," said Dr. Kate Rosenbluth, the President and Founder of Cala Health.

Payne credited his wife Mary, who he has been married to for nearly 50 years, for walking with him down the road of recovery and said he looks forward to enjoying many more Valentine’s Day dinners without the stress of uncontrollable shaking. "Try this device, see if it works for you like it did for me and get your life back," said Payne, encouraging other veterans to consider the therapy.

Payne has used the Cala kIQ System for about a year and celebrated Valentine’s Day with Mary with the newfound ability to hold her hand and play music again, a change he described as life-changing for his daily routines and community involvement in Fresno.