my vns experience

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

PS: this was my 500th post so I am now an "esteemed pillar of the community"! Do I get a raise?
Yes, you get a raise -- you will now be paid about 1/25th of what I get. (My post count = approx. 12,400). What the heck -- you can get paid exactly what I get paid! I'm sure Bernard won't mind...
 
Yes, you get a raise -- you will now be paid about 1/25th of what I get. (My post count = approx. 12,400). What the heck -- you can get paid exactly what I get paid! I'm sure Bernard won't mind...

Nice! Then we will make the same amount and can combine our salaries and get a truckload of sailboat fuel!

On a completely different note, I'm getting pretty excited about tomorrow when my vns will be activated. By this time tomorrow it will have been operational for several hours. I really have a good feeling about this. Fingers crossed!
 
Good luck arnie! Hope everything goes good!!!! Keep us posted.

:pop:

this is starting to get good. up next: arnie stars in the full monty!!!

If this is let me know if I should start saving my ones? :elephant:
 
Well, it's been activated! Yay! It's been on for about 4 hours now, and I have to say that it's not a big deal at all. When the doc first activated it I felt sort of a tugging sensation almost, and sort of a feeling like I needed to cough or clear my throat. I talked right then as well and my voice came out pretty hoarse. He said that I would probably notice the sensations less within a day or so and that the hoarseness would probably be there pretty much all the time. In only these few hours I realize that a number of cycles have happened that I haven't even noticed, or that I have felt them but not needed to cough. I have only been around one person to talk to face to face, and she kind of noticed the hoarseness. I talked to my wife and my daughter on the phone and they said that on the phone they might not have noticed if I had not mentioned it to them. It's only at .25 mA right now, so I will go back every 2 weeks for a while until it's at 1 or 1.25. So far, so good. We'll see what happens with the seizure activity and med levels. though I realize it may take a while.

Valerie and Q, (and any other women who care!) I'm feeling good enough that I may be able to take my show on the road ("Watch Arnie, the Imaginary Underwear Model, get his Vagus Nerve Stimulated!") so start saving your ones!

I'll be keepin' you posted (about the vns, not the other) although there may not be a lot of news for a while. I have had quite a few seizures, and a couple of pretty big ones, in the past 2 weeks, so we'll see what the next few weeks bring, if anything! Cheers!
 
[/QUOTE}I tried to tip my head back to put in eye drops, and it kind of hurt to do that. I also can't hold my phone between my ear and left shoulder now, or do sit-ups. I suppose some of that will get better when everything heals.[/QUOTE}

Arnie-
It's so good to hear things went successfully. I really hope the whole experience keeps getting better and better. Then it won't even be an experience, but a way of life. I can't wait to hear more! Perhaps now we don't have to envision a bald man trying to put in eye drops while on the phone in the middle of doing sit-ups. :ponder:
The people on this forum are so funny. It really makes my day to read the comments and responses on here. I wish I had internet at home so I wouldn't always be behind in all the 'news'. Everybody have a good day! :cheers: (Writing from a coffee shop.)
 
That just made me laugh! Thanks people. Arnie, i hope your better half does not get the info on some of this if she does not have a good sense of humor.
 
That just made me laugh! Thanks people. Arnie, i hope your better half does not get the info on some of this if she does not have a good sense of humor.

This thread, as do many of the threads here, has a lot of humor as well as some seriousness. Ya gotta love it! My wife doesn't read this forum, which is just as well. She does have a sense of humor but I think you would have to be a "regular" here to really appreciate it.!

Onward!
 
I promise I won't give an update every day, because that would get pretty tedious, but one of the things I was wondering about was if the vns would interfere with my sleep. I'm a really light sleeper and I thought it might. I'm happy to report that I slept really well last night, and in fact have felt very good and upbeat since it was activated yesterday. I'm sure some of that is the relief of having it finally activated after waiting for so long, and being glad that there have been no real side-effects so far. I know that I'm not supposed to see results for quite a while, but I've had a good feeling that this will work on my seizure frequency sooner than that. We'll see. In any case, so far, so good. I'll keep you posted and report back if there are any particular changes or problems. One of the possible side-effects is a sore throat, but unfortunately I have had a touch of the flu or something and a bit of a sore throat for about 2 weeks now, so I can't really judge that yet. I've also had very frequent, nearly constant, headaches for months now, which I think are long-term Lamictal side-effects. I'm hoping to be able to reduce the Lamictal in the next few months and see if that goes away.
Anyhow, that's it for right now! Onward and upward!
 
Valerie and Q, (and any other women who care!) I'm feeling good enough that I may be able to take my show on the road ("Watch Arnie, the Imaginary Underwear Model, get his Vagus Nerve Stimulated!") so start saving your ones!

stimulated! :roflmao: ooooh i can't wait! and i totally agree with you about our other halfs... my bf doesn't come on here either and it's just as well.

sooooo glad to hear how good you're doing friend, and you keep us posted as much as you want!

:hugs:

and ps- get in touch w/nak and work something out about your show being at her orgy! :bigsmile:
 
Arnie will be one of the featured attractions at the Orgy!

Glad to hear everything's working well so far. Fingers-crossed for continued good progress. Otherwise I'll have to change all the posters and brochures for the Orgy.
 
I'm glad to know that the Orgy is still on. Maybe Q and I can work up a duo number! Whaddaya say? Sound like a plan? We'll have to work that out in PMs so as not to spoil the surprise!
 
I've never had any problem sleeping since I've gotten it and I'm a pretty light sleeper too. The only real thing that annoyed me about it is when you first get it turned on and when it is turned up you get the tingle in your throat. But that may only last a day or two before you get used to it.

I also notice that I get short of breath easier. I may be singing to a song, on my MP3 I'm no where's near a professional singer. I may not be able to make it through a whole verse. That's also annoying but I can live with that instead of having seizures.

Some people have said that their voice changed slightly but I don't know if that happened to me.

I don't remember if I had a sore throat after I got my first one. That was in 2007 and my mind doesn't go back that far. I know I didn't have one when I got it replaced about a month ago.

I'm glad to know that the Orgy is still on. Maybe Q and I can work up a duo number! Whaddaya say? Sound like a plan? We'll have to work that out in PMs so as not to spoil the surprise!

This sounds like fun! Do we PM you or do you PM us?
 
Wanted to give you a warning about dropping your magnet. I've got mine clipped to the waist of my pants but it slides off every now and them.

Make sure (or try not to) drop your magnet in the toilet. Did this once after I went #2 and it wasn't a fun time digging it out!
 
Thanks for the magnet warnings, Valerie! I won't be needing mine for a while at least, because the magnet function isn't activated yet. I could still use the magnet to turn it off but I doubt if I will need to do that. If and when I do have the magnet with me all the time I decided to wear it around my ankle, because it says not to have it within ten inches of your credit cards or it could ruin them. I guess it also could do a number on an ipod! That would be very bad. Worse even than rooting around in the terlet for your magnet!

All continues to go well. I had a partial yesterday afternoon but my wife said it was a lot shorter and milder than they usually are. I'm still feeling good today and slept really well last night. I slept clear until 0745 and never sleep that late. It was great! I hope the sleep thing lasts.

I have been doing some research on the immediate effects of VNS, and it turns out that there is increased cerebral blood flow and certain other changes that can be seen on an fMRI scan while the stimulation is going on. I knew that there would have to be some immediate action from electricity going into your brain. Cheers!
 
my wife said it was a lot shorter and milder than they usually are. I'm still feeling good today and slept really well last night. I slept clear until 0745 and never sleep that late.

I have been doing some research on the immediate effects of VNS, and it turns out that there is increased cerebral blood flow and certain other changes that can be seen on an fMRI scan while the stimulation is going on.

These sound like really great things so early in the game.
 
I'm glad to know that the Orgy is still on. Maybe Q and I can work up a duo number! Whaddaya say? Sound like a plan? We'll have to work that out in PMs so as not to spoil the surprise!

oooh oooooh! PM me and we'll start putting our act together!

:pop:
...and coming to the stage, none other than the pair of simple partial seizure soldiers! put your hands together... the king will be bald and in his undies and the queen will be frustrated with too much hair pulling on her surgery scar and trying to remember why they were here!

:rock:
 
...and coming to the stage, none other than the pair of simple partial seizure soldiers! put your hands together... the king will be bald and in his undies and the queen will be frustrated with too much hair pulling on her surgery scar and trying to remember why they were here!

I like it! "Simple partial seizure soldiers" is a great tongue twister, and the whole king and queen thing has possibilities as well. (Do you have a royalty fetish or something?) We could be onto something here! We could show off our scars, too!
 
:roflmao: i tried and ur right, great tongue twister (lol i couldn't even get past saying it twice). and no, no royalty fetish, but if we're performing in front of this many people (almost 10,000 members now!) we gotta feel like royalty or we'll never pull it off. i'm very shy.
but, as valerie has pointed out you've said your bald and really hairy so you'll probably have me feelin' just fine ;)

:ponder: as we are playing our true soldiers parts we prob should be dressed in camo gear. start looking for some really cool and sexy camo underwear, ones that are tight and hold everything just right. haha val's going to be throwin' her ones at you all night!
 
Back
Top Bottom