Friday, February 10, 2006

VNS - Kicked up a notch


Today I got my Vagus Nerve Stimulator settings changed to increase the amperage and the frequency of stimulation. When Nurse Cindy cranked up the charge, I got a strong feeling like a honey bee buzzing in my throat. The feeling occured directly below my adams apple. It was quite distracting and somewhat uncomfortable. After a short while I did not notice it quite so much. She also increased the settings for my magnet activation settings. The feeling I get when activating by magnet is like a honey bee on seroids buzzing in my throat. I also got a feeling of my throat constricting and a difficulty in breating. Now, 8 hours later, I still get a mild honey bee buzz, and occasionally when it activates it makes me cough.

The setting changes were pretty startling, especially since I did not know what to expect. Although I have read through all the "side-effects" that people report, the words never quite match up to the actuall feeling. I suppose one person's tickling feeling is another person's buzzing bee.

I think I mentioned in yesterday's post about the wire in my neck... you know, the one that Christa and my father said was a vein. Well, just for the record, I was right! But that tells you how noticable it is - not very.

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