VNS is known as Vagus Nerve Stimulator. There was a long list of things that needed to be done prior however as insurance companies always want these kind of things. In my case, they had a small list of questions for me to ask like how many seizures a day, how many seizure medications I've taken, what were they; had to check them off and my neurosurgeon helped me on this one because he had access to back records, there were a few other questions related to medications but can't remember them.

At any rate, as I said, insurance wanted to be sure that I was a patient that was right for this device before they would be putting out the money for it in the end as the device price is high not including the surgical price. The surgery itself was pretty basic, the neurosurgeon placed the device on the left side of the body where the vagus nerve is close to the heart then performed necessary surgical steps so the body would heal correctly with the device.

In many cases, the device would be turned on the day of or day before leaving the hospital it all is based on patient healing and patient case as each one is different. My VNS was turned on day I was leaving hospital. Two weeks later there was a follow up with a few changes then two weeks later another few more changes. It was done in this fashion so the body could recover including there needed to be quick changes made. Every patient is different but this was my case and how it was handled.

Hope I have given you more detail to what you are looking for. I do suggest reading the sponsor content as that may be of help also.

@A MyEpilepsyTeam Member
A VNS is a Vagus Nerve Stimulator. They put a device in you chest and run wires up to your vagus nerve in your neck. It turns on every 5 minutes and is supposed to keep a seizure from starting. When you have a seizure someone will touch the VNS with a magnet and it’s supposed to wake you back up. I used to have one but had no luck.

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A MyEpile...

The VNS (vagus nerve stimulator ) in an alternative treatment . When the medications aren’t working well , the VNS is one of the treatments the Dr. Would bring .

A pacemaker ( the stimulator / power box ) like device is implanted by your left chest ( most of the time ) . A wire or wires are connected inside the stimulator. The rest of the wire is twinned up the the Vague nerve of the brain.

It is used to reduce the amount of seizures that you are having.