Kristen went in for her electrical impulse test. For the first half of the test they hooked up electrodes to her hand in different places and with this double prong dealeo sent pulses down her arm. She said mostly they felt odd and weird more than painful, except for the last nerve on each arm. The last one is deeper and they use a stronger pulse, which was apparently not so pleasant. Even the first ones made her jump and squirm, sometimes she would chuckle after, others she made a point of refraining from comment.
Kristen said she felt like the frogs from her senior biology class back in high school. Her anatomy class hooked up electricity to frog legs and made them kick by shocking them. In my senior anatomy class we would hold an electrode in each hand, and a buddy would control the dial. When we said go they would start the current weak and keep turning it up until we said stop, or grunted in some negative way as we contorted and convulsed from the electricity. We both learned pretty much the same thing don't you think? I just wonder where was my teacher that whole time? Anyway, arms and legs convulsed back then and now.
The second half of the test was a little less pleasant, he stuck a needle, thin, but still a needle, in various places in her hands and arms and continued to shock and record results. She didn't love that so much, but she was a brave little camper and chit-chatted through the entire thing. The doctor performing the tests has to analyze the data before coming to any real reliable conclusions. I asked him to make some educated guesses since he knows his craft and he was recording numbers and results as we went along. He said she certainly has some issues going on with her nerves, not as mild as many cases he has seen, but not the worse either. He said on a scale from one to ten he is confident she is worse than a 5. We won't know until Thursday if the results suggest surgery or not.
Kristen is wearing her braces to bed. I think they are a great source of inspiration for a super hero crime fighter outfit. She had less numbing, but still some.
It seems funny that all of those electrical pulses only stay in the arm and don't affect Wolverine at all. I kind of hoped that a little of the current would go his way and act as a mini-electrolysis session. We've always said that if his dad is any indication his first couple days here are going to have to include a Nair bath or a shave. A little mini-electrolysis session could have been a good first line of defense.
Oh, we went up to the outlet malls in Park City like we had been planning....... and NOW we aren't going to buy any clothes for a while.....
5 comments:
Any names yet? I think Wolverine is awesome. You know that most of us will call him that, regardless of what you name him. Stop purchasing things!! You are going to get tonz of stuff
I saw Gma picts of the little Wolverine and I can already tell he is going to be so cute! My brother bought one of those electrode things to help him get amazing muscles by shocking himself....he was young. It was really weird to not be able to control your moves. I am making no sense but........I am giving up now.
Poor K sounds awful :) I hate getting poked and prodded. I LOVE the outlet malls any good sales I should know about ?
Everyone had sale racks that you had to pick through, Carter's was the most aggressive sale I think.
YUCK, I can relate to the needle probe thing. Several times since 'The Bike Wreck' I've had to go in for tests to determine the degree and range of nerve damage and they use the needles with electrical pulses along my spine from mid-back down to the feet. Partially severed nerves don't transmit pain info correctly and it is akin to torture. Each time a different tester at a different facility stopped the test half way through on their own to allow me to start breathing, stop sweating, wait for the spasms to calm down. It's quite nice of them to be so thoughtful when their 'normal job' is sticking people with electrified needles you know?
Hang in there Kristen! Make sure Cal takes you out for ice cream when you've been good at the dr's. If you haven't tried hiding in the bathroom until the office is closing or sneaking out a fire escape door you've 'been good'!
You guys need to trade Wolverine in for a girly version so we can give you all of our hand me downs! Well unless he is a baby secure in his future man'ness and doesn't mind wearing a few purple lime green outfits. =)
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