Posted by johnLA on August 5, 2014, at 3:41:15
In reply to going for deep tms..., posted by johnLA on August 3, 2014, at 10:56:55
thanks again for all the good wishes. really appreciate it.
well, i did the first treatment. i feel strangely calm and ok. been listening (and feeling) music too...been a long time since that has happened.
i know it's placebo, but i will take it.
the doc was kind enough to schedule a 7pm appointment. i got there having a pretty good idea of how things go with deep tms. i just didn't know how it would feel.
it took her a while to 'calibrate' the headgear, my brain and the machine. they do this by a trying to find a 'sweet spot' (her words) that when the machine pulsates it will make your right hand/thumb twitch. from there she then set the threshold/intensity at 95%. we will get to 120% threshold within a few days.
she had some trouble finding my sweet spot. (lol) she actually said that she had one patient she had to switch to regular tms due to not being able to get the person's thumb to twitch. this got me a bit worried. but, eventually she found it. i have always been hard-headed...
you wear a headgear that looks like a 1920's football helmet or a 1920's flapper's swim head piece. take your pick. has a chin strap too. felt very secure/safe in it.
you put in ear plugs. there is also cool air running thru the machine's helmet. all comfy so far.
she lowers/positions the machine's 'helmet' over your headgear with all the electrodes and the whole thing is connected to some type of monitor that graphs your brains response to the pulses. the monitor looks like a ekg/eeg.
the procedure is 4 seconds of 'pulses' 20 seconds off. the goes on for 18 minutes. i think she said a total of 55 4 second pulses.
i took some tylenol beforehand. no headache after.
it's hard to explain, but it feels like your brain is vibrating for this 4 seconds. doesn't hurt. not quite uncomfortable. but, she had warned me before that some people have difficulty in the jaw/facial muscles. this happened to me.
my teeth would chatter as if i was cold with every pulse. so, tomorrow i will be wearing a mouthguard.
so, not too troublesome at all overall. i am looking forward to getting to a higher threshold. :)
i can again say i had a very pleasant night out with a friend tonight and the music thing was pretty cool too. i listened to some miles davis and mozart and could really enjoy it. long time for that to have happened as previously mentioned.
i feel a little tired now. in a normal good way. ruminations are almost zero.
it's strange; i have to say the calmness i feel is a bit like what i felt with ect. but, i now realize there was a almost euphoric unnatural feel goodness with ect. that is not the case here. just a more overall normal homeostasis. (love when i can use my greek!)
also, i am on klonopin only. no ad's right now. god i want off the k.
overall i am very pleased and cautiously optimistic.
let me know if you have any questions.
i'm praying for me and all of us that this thing is another tool in the box against this mofo of a condition.
john
poster:johnLA
thread:1069147
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140717/msgs/1069257.html