1st Programming! Officially Turned On!!

Well, Millie got her two devices (neural stimulators) turned on today!! She said she was a little nervous before we got to the hospital, but everything went fine during the programming.

The first Doctor (Bowman) said they first needed to check the devices. She had this blue thing that looked like an older type of palm pilot that said Medtronic on it. This Medtronic device had a wire connected to it and a smaller gray box at the other end of the wire. The gray box was placed over each side of Millie's chest on top of the devices that are in her body. She entered some settings on the blue box that were a starting point for dystonia patients. There are 4 settings for each box/device that's in Millies chest. Dr Bowman started on the device in Millies left side. She would change one setting at a time and after each change she'd ask Millie how she felt. She would ask if there is any numbness or tingling. Millie's answer was almost always no in regards to tingling/numbness, with the exception of one time with her right arm. Millie said her right arm felt a little weird, maybe tingly. Dr Bowman made a setting change and then Millie said it was fine. (note: the device in Millies left side controls the right side of her body) Dr Bowman said there were no problems at all and proceeded to do the device on the right side. The device on the right side went the same as on the left. There was one point when Millie said there was a little something and the Dr made a change that made the little something go away.

Millie needs to be careful with devices that have magnetics, such as some of those things that are in the doorways of stores to prevent theft. Another example is the magnetics on the door of a fridge! The reason is because these can sometimes turn her devices off. Millie received a remote control to turn the devices on if necessary though. It can also check the battery life of the remote control itself, the battery life of the devices in her chest, and verify if the devices are on or off. The batteries in her chest devices should last 3-5 years, which will then need to be replaced, which means another surgery adventure.

After all the programming was done Dr Tagliati came in and said a few things. He said the key is to be patient. He mentioned the first few programmings are best educated guesses and they start at low settings. He said sometimes patients see results after the 1st programming, but if you see nothing don't worry. He would like to wait at least 1 month to decide if the current settings are good or they need to be increased/decreased. He said it may take 1-3 years to see the FULL effect of stimulation. He said the good news is we can use ALL the necessary settings because there is nothing that is bothering Millie as far as the device settings go. He also said, look, from now on, it can only get better!!

Millie will return for her 2nd programming on Monday Nov 3rd.

Well, below are some pics from today, enjoy!

Love to all!
Mike

Here's Millie after breakfast ready for the hospital:

Here's Millie and Toeclog in the hospital room where the programming took place:

Here's Dr Bowman pretty excited at getting to level 16 on Tetris! After she finished that game she starting programming Millie's device:

Here's Millie surprised to have reached level 40!:

Here's the blue Medtronic device that was used to program the devices in Millies chest:

It's Millie and Barb!:

Here's a great shot of Millie:

And now that Millie has seen the programming done she's reading the directions to get the specifics on how to do it for Toeclog:

Here she is telling Toeclog everything will be OK:

Here's both of them posing before Toeclogs turn:

Here's Millie adjusting Toeclogs settings!:

Here's both of them happy after everything is done!: