A Great Day X2

The first great thing that happened is my friend got to go home from the hospital today. Many prayers went out for the speedy recovery and not having surgery. This person has seen me at my worst and didn't give up on me. Everyone needs friends like this!

Secondly, Neurostar contacted me today, and gave me rites to share information on the treatment and my recovery. The process is designed for people with depression that medication is not effective for. www.NeuroStarTMS.com (I am not a representative of the company, or speak for them. Please, send all inquiries to their site)

The treatment is painless and last around thirty minuets a day. I had three or four treatments a week for four weeks and then tapered down over the next four weeks. After about two weeks I noticed an improvement. As the weeks progressed I got happier and happier. By week four I was a new person ten times over.

(Now remember I have been depressed for over two decades. Abilify to Zoloft, Lithium Depacote, Seroquel, I have been on literally everything antidepressive and antipsycotic.)

After the first four weeks, I went against my doctors advice and stopped treatment. About two weeks later I came back and finished the series out. One of the best decisions of my life.

The treatment consists of sitting in a chair for around thirty minuets. No sedation, no pain. A device about the size of two pack of playing cards is placed on your head. It has two magnets in it. Your motor threshold is found with a series of pulses that last for four seconds. You hear the machine, but that is it.

Once the exact spot on the premotor cortex of the brain is located, and you are seated in the chair, the magnetic "box" is placed on your head. Four seconds of pulses, 26 seconds of rest, repeat. The most I felt was slight tingling in my jaw. A small price for freedom.

Now I am not saying that this will remove all the depression receptors in your brain. (My doctor said it was like ECT in "rewiring" the brain, but there is much more to the science and machine than that. And I may need maintenance treatments later). As you know in yesterday's post about being proactively depressed, yes the pain was there when I learned my friend was in the hospital, and Christmas is really hard laying flowers on Brydan's grave.

I will say, if it was not for the TMS treatment, the depression of Christmas would overcome me and the downward spiral would suck me to the place I am hoping to help people from.

I can answer very few questions about the TMS, because I had a treatment designed for me, your treatment may be different in number and length of sessions, Dr's decision.