Back in 2013, my neurologist mentioned a device he'd been hearing about in medical circles--the
Cefaly, an e-TNS (external trigeminal nerve stimulator) unit, which is a type of
TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) unit. It would stimulate the
trigeminal nerve using mild electrical impulses, and had been shown to work even on people who did not respond to medication (like me!). I was interested, but it wasn't sold in the US, as it hadn't been approved by the FDA.
Luckily, a little Googling showed me that it was for sale in Canada (at Costco, of all places), and didn't need any sort of prescription. I had a friend in Canada purchase it and sent it to me. I didn't know it was up for approval in the US, and had no idea how long it would be before it was approved or denied. But I was desperate for anything that might give me even a little bit of relief, and the $350 out of pocket seemed like a small price to pay if I could just get things under control.
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Cefaly version 1. Everyone calls this my Wonder Woman crown.
Totally random trivia: I went with "Cyborg" because of the Cefaly. |
I was super happy when it came, and even happier when I found that it worked for me...to an extent. It was supposed to work as a preventative device. You use it at least once a day, and it's supposed to lessen the number of migraines, and decrease the severity of the attacks. Because I'd had to purchase it from Canada, using it daily wasn't an option. I couldn't run out to Costco when I ran out of electrodes and pick up more, and having my friend ship them from Canada repeatedly wasn't a viable solution. I wound up using the Cefaly only when I had a migraine that was extremely debilitating, and I needed to be up and functioning. I found that as long as I was using the Cefaly, my pain was less (though it never actually completely ended a migraine).
I've worn my Cefaly while out doing everything from grocery shopping to attending a gaming convention. I've gotten a surprising number of compliments on it, and a
lot of questions.
Fast forward to May 2017. Cefaly was approved in the US in 2014, but I'd gotten used to only using it when I had a migraine. I used it as a painkiller, and it worked better than anything else available to me. The main problem with it is that the arms of the original Cefaly sit above your ears, and sometimes slide down and rest on them. The arms are much larger than sunglasses, and the weight pressing down would cause a headache on the sides of my head. It wasn't nearly as bad as the migraines, but it was irritating and (no surprise) painful. In May, I found out about the Cefaly 2, the second generation of Cefaly device. It did the same thing as the original Cefaly, but was smaller--just the center piece that attaches to the forehead over the electrode.
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| Cefaly version 2 (now called Cefaly PREVENT) |
Now I could easily carry the Cefaly in my purse, keeping it with me at all times. I began using it more often, but still only for migraines, not as a preventative measure. The price tag was worth it.
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| Not as stylish, but MUCH less painful. |
Then on November 29th, I received an email offer from Cefaly. I could exchange my Cefaly 2 (renamed the Cefaly PREVENT) for the brand new Cefaly DUAL. In September, the FDA had approved Cefaly for acute migraine treatment, and Cefaly had rolled out two new devices--the DUAL and the ACUTE. The DUAL is (unsurprisingly) a combination of the PREVENT and the ACUTE. It has two settings. The 20 minute (PREVENT) setting is supposed to be used once a day, like the original Cefaly. The hour long (ACUTE) setting is meant to be used as I've been using the Cefaly for years--during an actual migraine to lessen the pain (and hopefully end the migraine early).
Once again, worth it! This meant that instead of turning the Cefaly back on every 20 minutes, I could run it for an hour without dealing with it. And I figured now would be a good time to get a stockpile of electrodes so that I could start actually using the PREVENT setting for its intended purpose.
I ordered my DUAL on the 23rd, and the agonizing wait began. It was supposed to get here on the 26th. Our doorbell is broken, and the Cefaly required the exchange of the PREVENT for the DUAL. So I spent the 26th camped out on the couch by the door, waiting. And waiting. And waiting. UPS's website, by the way, is horrible about updating if a package doesn't get taken out when it's supposed to. At 10 PM, I admitted defeat, and went to bed with UPS still telling me that my package was going to be delivered today.
On the 27th near noon, the UPS website finally updated to indicate that delivery information was unavailable. The 28th showed the same notice. And the 29th. And the 30th. As I was falling asleep the night of the 30th (that's last night), a text message woke me up. It was UPS informing me that my package was rescheduled to be delivered today. My excitement was tempered with wariness. I'd heard that whole song and dance about being delivered before... Also, I was exhausted and had already dozed off when the message came in and woke me up, so that probably had something to do with it.
So today I gathered up my waiting supplies (tablet, mug of tea, crochet, cell phone, Cefaly PREVENT) and settled onto the couch. The website informed me that approximate delivery time was between 10 AM and 2 PM. Not too bad. Four hours is better than the 12 I waited on the 26th, right?
It would have been, except it wasn't delivered until 6 PM. But at least it was delivered!
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| The Cefaly DUAL box. Looks almost identical to the Cefaly PREVENT. |
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| The actual Cefaly DUAL. Picture on box was true to size! |
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| The Cefaly, instruction booklet, electrode, carrying case, and charger. |
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| First use! |
I'm excited to see how the ACUTE setting works for me (less excited about the daily migraines, but what can ya do?). And now that I have a stockpile of electrodes, and they're good for 20 uses each instead of 10, I can actually do daily treatment with the PREVENT setting. Although because I have oily skin, I get less than the supposed max number of uses. For the old electrodes, I got maybe 5 - 7 before they wouldn't stick. The newer ones, I've been getting about 10 - 12 uses. To be fair, I was wearing them for several hours at a time, and they were really only meant to be worn for 20 minutes at a time. Still, even at 10 uses per electrode, I have enough electrodes to last me a good three months of daily use.
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Mid-treatment.
You can see what it does to my eyebrows! |
Nothing like thinking you're pain free, starting a treatment cycle, and then the pain lessens and you realize how much pain you've been in this whole time... <starts an acute cycle>
