halfway done

I finally got to re-hook up with Medtronic. It has been about a year and a half since I had seen one. My biggest concern was that my I could have sworn that when I got my motor cortex stimulator put in, I'd have about four years before having to change out the battery for the generator.

Well, June was four years. I get a rough idea of when the battery is about to go with my remote, but I don't know how long that would be in terms of time. My remote was still saying I was good, but I wanted to get a more concrete number.

Medtronic has a fancy hand held unit that can talk to my generator. From there, they can reset my limits, get how many hours it's been on, and how much battery I have.

The good news is that I still have 46.8 months at current useage. Yeah the power is a bit high and it's feeding three electrodes. But the rate is low, which is what is my saving grace. For some reason, for me, keeping the rate low and the power high works.

She reset my power limits higher if I need to. I don't see the need often - I do good at my current settings. But it's nice to know I have the option if I need it again.

We spent the rest of the time chatting about what I went through, and how I'm doing now. I said I hate to sound like one of those testominals, but it's true for me.

She told me that the current battery technology is rechargeable, and gives the patient about nine years before needing replacement. Granted, the placement of my generator might make battery recharging a bit more akward. But it's good to know that when I'm finally ready for replacement, there's new developments out there.