Hi everyone,
So yesterday I had the mapping session. Essentially they take the coil and move it around until they find the location on the brain and strength of the pulse that makes your thumb involuntarily twitch. It was very weird, them pressing a button and my face or hand twitching on cue. The whole thing lasted about 20 minutes. I did not feel any pain and had no headache or any other side effects. Additionally, prior to going in, they had me fill out two more depression inventories (Hamilton and Beck, if I’m not mistaken) and then explained to me how it works. I’m not a science person and not a medical professional in any way, but there are a lot of explanations and studies out there if you google “transcranial magnetic stimulation.”
The second appointment, which I just left, was much more intense. It was 40 pulses over 4 seconds (I think) with then a 24 second or so break for about 40 minutes. I’m not 100% on those numbers. They moved the coil so it was stimulating a different part of my brain than the thumb movement part. The shocks were pretty intense, painful at first, and gave me a headache afterwords. While they were doing the procedure, the technician asked me to do two more depression tests where she read the questions and I answered her directly. She said that the pain would go down over over time and that they would use the inventories and tests to track my progress.
I felt strange afterwards, not just the headache, but a little more aware of my surroundings, almost felt like I was high. I don’t know if that’s the TMS or my hangover today. It’s too soon to say if this will work but I am hopeful!
4 comments
I am very interested in hearing about how this works out. I don’t know that I would necessarily be interested in trying it myself, but I’m still very curious, and very much hope that it is of benefit to you.
Thanks for sharing how the TMS goes. I’ve heard about some really good results from it. Really hope this will work for you. 🙂
Great to hear about your second treatment, and thanks for keeping SP updated! Not sure how much your doc told you, but TMS doesn’t work for everyone, which is why they make you do the depression surveys. If you’re not feeling any different within I think halfway through your treatment (not positive on that number though, it might only be a couple of weeks or something, and they stop it immediately if you get worse/suicidal) they’ll stop treatment. But if you felt different and not worse that’s a really positive sign. And just so you know your body will get used to the pulse, and ask your doc if you can take Advil before you go in (that’s what I had to do to prevent headaches). Also, not sure about your background but if you’re able to a quick nap when you’re done it got rid of any headache I had afterwards. I don’t know about your treatment, but for me they had to “ramp up” the voltage over I think the first week. Not to scare you, but if your doc didn’t tell you it might get a little worse before getting better (I got worse headaches as they increased the voltage, but everyone’s different, and they might not even have to increase your voltage depending on what you’re at). I actually had my TMS done by the doctor who helped invent and research it, and he said in all the patients he’s seen since starting he’s only had one quit because it was too painful and the patient couldn’t tolerate it. I know you’ve probably researched it, but if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask me 🙂
P.S. Isn’t the twitching weird?? It always creeped me out when I would twitch involuntarily LOL