I slept well, but then I expected to because I was practically dead on my feet by the time we got to bed last night (this morning). I wake up with dyskinesia in my right arm and leg, and lower back pain. I left the hospital yesterday afternoon with my device set to Group ‘A’ settings – 1.7v on the left side, 2.0v on the right. Maricel told me that if I have dyskinesia, then it is a result of over stimulation and I should reduce the relevant voltage. The dyskinesia is really quite bad, so I reduce the voltage to 1.5v to try for some instant relief. It does provide instant relief in that the dyskinesia reduces a little and the lower back pain disappears, but at the expense of tremor and dystonia – swings and roundabouts, innit? I’m trying to ascertain my mood, but am finding it difficult because I’m feeling so weary from my busy day yesterday. I’m not feeling so good as I did immediately after my tune-up, that’s for sure – I’m hoping it’s just tiredness.
My son is returning to Dorset this morning, so I make us all a cooked breakfast – sausages, bacon, poached eggs, toast (my wife did the toast). He packs his gear into his car, and heads off pronto – he is due to be at work at 5pm, and I want to be sure he isn’t short of time and ends up racing to get back in time. I tolerate the increased tremor for a while, and then decide to try out the Group ‘B’ settings that were programmed yesterday. Tremor instantly calmed, but dyskinesia still a feature. Dystonia there, but less severe. I’ll give it time to settle before playing with the voltage.
Evening comes around, and the dyskinesia is getting a little more violent. I’m having trouble drinking my tea without throwing it over everything, so I reduce the voltage on the right side substantially to 1.6v (originally 2.2v on the right and 1.35 on the left) to get a broadly similar tradeoff between tremor and dyskinesia. It’ll be interesting to see how I sleep tonight…