Another good night. These new settings certainly seem to be agreeing with my sleep patterns. I’m getting more and more unbroken sleep, I’m not thrashing around and calling out in my sleep and neither am I waking up in discomfort. I’m a little bit disappointed that my tremor is coming back again so quickly, and I appear to be getting towards the upper limits of adjustment with my device…
I have a moderate tremor going on in my right arm as I return from my morning dog walk, and I’m tempted to increase the voltage on the right side I decide to sit quietly for a while and see if it will calm down a little on its own.
I send a text to my son (who is on his first holiday abroad accompanied only by his girlfriend) and one to my daughter. I have a FaceTime call from my daughter, which is nice. A couple of texts fly between me and my mate Gerry at Fig Tree House. Then I pick up my copy of the letter from Joseph at the NHNN which was sent to my GP following my re-programming on the 28th of June. I had given it only a cursory glance when it arrived at the weekend – it merely contained a summary of the settings programmed into my device following my appointment. I read the letter in detail, and am now confused because the settings detailed in the letter do not seem to correspond with what Joseph had told me last week. I decide to check, using my remote control, the minimum and maximum voltages permitted on each side of my body. Sure enough, they do not correspond to the values stated in the letter. Completely different. I’m going to have to email Joseph and see why this is. I’m also alarmed to note that the battery level on my device has fallen to 2.99v already – it was 3.01v just a few days ago. If I turn my (right side) voltage up to the maximum permissible then I will be receiving 2.9v – this seems a little too close for comfort to the battery level remaining. The battery is supposed to last between 3 and 5 years – it’s been less than three months since my hardware was implanted. At this rate I’ll have to have the neurostimulator replaced within 12 months. I’ll raise this concern with Joseph as well – see what his comments are.
I’m feeling a bit low today. The discovery that the hospital letter doesn’t tally with either my understanding of my re-programmed settings or with the actual settings held in my device doesn’t really help.
We are going to dinner at my wife’s eldest son’s house tonight, so I go for it with my device settings and whack both sides up to maximum (1.9v on the left, 2.9v on the left). Still my tremor isn’t completely calmed. I can see myself going back for a tune-up sooner rather than later…