Tuesday, July 20, 2010

VNS

At my appointment yesterday afternoon we received final conformation that we've really exhausted the chemistry experiment in my body with all the different drug combinations I've been on the last couple years. Dr. Macken's push now is the Vagus Nerve Stimulator. In the picture you can basically see what it looks like in my body.

The VNS is a pacemaker-like device that's implanted in the left part of my chest, under the skin. A wire will run up and wrap around the Vagus Nerve in my neck. A small amount of electricity will pulse from the device, through the wire and straight to my Vagus Nerve that, in turn, runs to my brain and effectively lowers or prevents my seizures.

I've read some about the device and there's really nothing but praise about what it can do. It's an out-patient procedure which it good or bad depending on the pain and recovery.

At this point, I'd do anything to lower the amount of entries in this blog.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Short Wait

I'm sitting in the waiting room at Northwestern for my appointment with Dr Macken. I'm going to have a lot of questions about my medication for sure.

Something I told Sara before but when I'm at Northwestern I feel very comforted, like I'm safe. Almost like being admitted here for seizures was a good experience. It's like when I'm here I'm home.