Wow @A MyEpilepsyTeam Member, I am so sorry you have so many seizures a day. Has the VNS helped you then?
The VNS has definitely changed my life. Mine goes off for 30 seconds and then is off for 5 minutes.
@A MyEpilepsyTeam Member, the Vagus Nerve is amazing. It's the 10th cranial nerve and is part of your parasympathetic nervous system which is the slowing down of the nervous system (i.e. slowing of the heart rate, slowing the breathing, etc.). So every time the device is going off, it is stimulating your parasympathetic nervous system to help your body calm down, and with epilepsy our nervous systems are overworking. They have found that just the on/off stimulation itself has benefited many people with epilepsy and even depression too. But to top that off, you have the magnet. When you swipe the magnet across your chest, it turns the device on immediately, instead of waiting for the next cycle to start. It also goes off at a 0.25V higher than what you normally get. That way it hopefully stops your seizure. I wear mine wrapped around my ankle. With my seizures, I do usually get a simple partial seizure before anything else can happen. So either I am able to grab my magnet, whoever I'm with kind of helps by reminding me to swipe my magnet, or someone else does it for me. It just depends how bad the seizure it is. The VNS is amazing. Every time I swipe my magnet it calms me down. It also has just changed how I feel. Before the VNS, whenever I would get a seizure, I just had to wait and see if it turned into something worse. I had to rely on someone else to give me my emergency medicine if it did. I just was really at the mercy of my seizures. Now I finally feel like I have more control over my life again. I have the ability to help myself. I feel more safe when I am alone. I just feel better in general because of it all.
That's wonderful to hear @A MyEpilepsyTeam Member
@A MyEpilepsyTeam Member The VNS is helping A LOT! My seizures have decreased to 3-8 a day, Granted 8 is still a lot but a huge relief to as many as I was having.
The magnet is not the only way to turn it on. It turns on for so long when ever the doctor sets. Mine was started to go off every 5 minutes for 30 seconds. It now at where it goes off every 22 seconds for 7 seconds. all though 3-8 a day are high for many its better than what they were 85-100 a day.
That helps me understand a little better , okay so since my seizures just happen with no warning , how would I swipe a magnet across the vns box during a seizure? It there any possibility that I could swipe it during a seizure ? Will it stop the seizure as it starts happening?