Posted by juanantoniod on February 21, 2006, at 20:02:44
In reply to Re: How VNS Therapy is Going, posted by deniseuk on February 21, 2006, at 4:02:31
Denise,
I understand your questioning the process. From my understanding, this is just the way it's "done". It may be that, like a medication, your body needs time to adjust to it, and the best way to facilitate that is to ramp up the dosage slowly.
I do know from emailing with another person who got VNS the week before me, that she left the office when her device was first activated and couldn't feel anything, so she returned and insisted that they turn her up until she felt it (she went from .25 to .75). However, the next day she had terrible headaches and had to return to the office for the dosage to be dropped back down to .25 (milliamps).
Incidentally, I did not go in yesterday to have the voltage increased because I am having shortness of breath caused by the device, which is bothersome at best. I wanted to wait another 2 weeks to adjust further before upping the dosage. The psychiatrist agreed with me. (We had a phone session/consult. Don't you love the ones that do things so modern? I certainly appreciated not having to go in to his office just to be told what I was going to do anyway.)
So, I guess the dosage can be increased as fast as tolerated, with an interval between increases usually of 2 weeks. This would dictate how long it takes to get up to the therapeutic level (1.25-1.50).
Let me know if you think of anything else.
Take good care,
Antonio
> Thanks Antonio,
>
> How long will it be before you can go up to 1.25 and why can't they put you on that setting now?
>
> Denise
poster:juanantoniod
thread:574518
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060219/msgs/611866.html