Well, it’s been a long road (I say, as if I’ve reached the end of it, but really, I’m like 2 blocks into a journey) – as of May 23, 2014 I have had my vagal nerve stimulator implanted for 7 months! That’s right. I became a cyborg on November 23, 2013. You can read about it here. Complete with video!

The reason why I don’t talk about my specific medication is because I am not a doctor or a health care professional. Everyone has specific needs and diagnoses. While I totally encourage research when your doctor talks to you about a new option, your body and individual cocktail is going to react differently than mine. Positive and negative side effects or reactions are based on your own personal chemistry, allergies, diet, exercise, sleep and more. I don’t want you becoming biased (if even unconsciously) due to something that happened to me. I DO recommend that you check out the community forums at Epilepsy.com if you want to ask or read about specific medications and numerous other sites.

Now onto the good stuff.

My most recent tune-up was on the 2nd of June, a couple weeks ago – which reminds me that I need to get some blood work done this week to check my new levels for my antiepileptic meds. At that point we lowered my meds again. We’ve been lowering my main antiepileptics for about 2 months now very slowly. I still have my “emergency pills” in case my VNS device fails or I need additional support. These generally are a quick acting anticonvulsants. However, I have been maxxed out on my main meds for a long time. Like, concerningly maxxed out. To toxic levels. So, in 2 months I have gone down 20% for my nightly dosage and 40% of my morning dosage!  My neurologists have told me that I will probably always have to take meds, but this is substantial!

So what about my VNS device? Again, same as medication, people’s devices are set to what is therapeutic to them. This may be higher or lower than what mine is at. I am going to provide you with my settings only because I have a lot of engineer friends and it’s pretty cool information! If you’re reading this and have a much lower setting or a much higher setting, remember that there are other factors – medication, body size, seizure frequency, tolerance, etc.

Output current: 2.5mA / 20Hz / PW 250 microsec
Impedance value 3050 ohms
Magnet current: 2.75mA

*NOTE: For some reason this video filmed mirrored, which is apparently a common issue with my laptop. I didn’t have a program that would do this simple flipping task. I realized that it probably only annoys me. My sleeve tattoo is on my left arm and the device is implanted on the left side.