I’m travelling down to the NHNN in London today, so that the DBS speech therapist and his neurologist buddy can have another fiddle with the settings of my neurostimulator. I catch the 10.07am train from Gunton station and arrive at the hospital (slightly out of breath) a few minutes before 1.30pm. As before, the first thing that happens is that the DBS speech therapist creates a benchmark by recording my voice prior to any adjustment. The neurologist then attempts to improve my symptoms, concentrating on my voice and tremor. On this occasion, however, he is unable to locate settings that are an improvement on those that he programmed on my last visit, three weeks ago. To say that I’m disappointed is an understatement, but the neurologist suggests that I cycle through the three lots of settings that are currently programmed into my device, in order that they don’t get a chance to “soak in” (or for my brain to become accustomed to specific stimulation) and see if that improves matters. The speech therapist listens to my voice and doesn’t even bother to compare it to the benchmark – he can hear that nothing has changed. I tell him that the neurologist has been unable to improve my voice, and his suggestion of cycling through my settings. He wishes me luck, and that’s it…
I finish my day in London in the usual fashion (food from McDonald’s followed by some live music and a couple of beers in the Blues Bar) and then I catch my train back to Norfolk.