Today I got my VNS device settings adjusted, which I’ll do every two months until we get up to the point that my vagal nerve is being stimulated 49% of the time, the therapeutic level to help prevent my epileptic seizures.
Last time I visited the nurse who does these adjustments, I’d just had a seizure out in the waiting room because one of my huge triggers was out there. I was nervous and I’d been wheezing each time my VNS activated. She fixed all that. She made some adjustments to input, output, wave length, wave duration stuff that I don’t understand. But she made my experience with the VNS much easier than it was prior to her last adjustment.
This morning at 7:00 a.m. my VNS was activated 12% of the time. It turned on every 3 minutes and was active for 21 seconds at a time. It helped control my seizures, I think. Let’s just say I didn’t have any, but I may not have had any w/o the VNS.
When I left the clinic at 9:00 a.m. my VNS was adjusted to be active 23% of the time. It turns on every 1.8 minutes but is only active for 14 seconds now.
When the VNS does its thing, it slowly builds to a crescendo and then tapers off, much like a bell curve. My breathing is strained at the most intense part of that and my voice warbles throughout. Many times I stop talking, wait out the cycle, and resume talking after it’s done.
Today’s adjustment makes talking through it a lot easier because it feels less intense. My voice still warbles, but my breathing is not nearly as affected. Hopefully I’ll have less people worrying I’m about to keel over now.
