Scanners
I arrived promptly, even 10 minutes before my scheduled appointment to get my initial brain mapping. Signs on the wall of the waiting area were adamant about being early for appointments.
Appointment time
15 minutes later…
…30 minutes later…
… finally, 45 minutes after my scheduled appointment I get called back to the lab. 15 minutes later and I would have walked out of the office probably never to return.
The doctor apologized profusely for the delay and wasted no time wiring my head. He placed two electrodes near the hairline in front, a couple on the back of my neck, and one on each ear lobe. He then pulled a skull cap over the remainder of my exposed cranium. On the monitor in front of me was a graphic of the top view of my head with about 25 dots that kept bouncing numbers. He explained that the numbers represented electrical impedance. The numbers varied but the color was a steady red. “When all the dots turn blue or green, we’ll have good connections,” he said.
Then he took a tube of goo and began injecting each of the dots in the skull cap. I could feel the cool electrical gel make contact with my scalp as each of the dots on the monitor began to register lower numbers and turning into cool colors.
when all the electrodes were in place the doctor described the test:
1) Eyes open – staring at the brain poster on the wall
2) Eyes closed – just that, eyes closed
3) On task – reading something
At each task he would announce that he was recording for 4 minutes each. I couldn’t see the monitor anymore as he had turned it to face him more directly. He seemed to be paying attention to the monitor which was now recording my brain waves from several angles. After the last test he removed the skull cap, electrodes, and let me wash my hair in the adjacent sink.
The results of the analysis would require a couple hours to compile so I agreed to return early afternoon.
…later that same day…
I’m back in the waiting area promptly at the designated time, even 5 minutes early.
10 minutes later…
15 minutes later…
This was my third visit to the waiting room and not once had they been on time. I wouldn’t really have cared except there seemed to be a little hypocrisy in the warning about being on time for the appointments.
The doctor grabbed a pile of paper off the printer and sat down with me in the conference room. He flipped pages and explained things about the brain and results that I didn’t comprehend. I just wanted some validation for my ADD/Depression. When he finished I asked what a normal map looked like. He responded that in 14 years of doing neural feedback, he’d never seen a ‘normal’ map. That was fine, but I still needed something to compare my eval to so he flipped open some other maps from previous patients and showed before and after. That was a little more helpful, but still not answering my question directly.
He showed me several pages of the various colored heads from the printout and showed where the ADD and Depression patterns were apparent. Then he caught me off guard by showing me some yellow and orange wave patterns normally attributed to Aspergers and Autism, or perhaps a historical head injury. I’d always kinda thought that I was a highly functioning retard, but now I had the evidence.
The doctor turned me over to his assistant to close the deal. I wrote the check for $3,490.00 and scheduled my first appointment for calibration. Insurance will only pay 60%, and only after I prove that I’m actually doing the therapy.
From nearly walking out the door to enthusiastically embracing the journey of my next six months, all in one day. I start my first appointment in less than two days. I’ll be back here with a report.
In: Depression · Tagged with: Adderall, bi-polar, Depression, expensive, Neurofeedback, random thoughts, unable to concentrate