I never had really abrupt memory or confusion problems with ECT. In fact, I really never had any problems other than the usual short-term memory issues during treatment.
It could be that since they started unilateral, it kind of prepped you for bilateral? Totally a theory based on nothing but a wild guess.
One thing my pdoc did with me because he was being very protective of my memory (thank you, pdoc

) was that he had me take an alzheimer's med during treatment. I think it was namenda or aricept. No real idea if that had any addition protective factor because I didn't have any memory problems, but . . . I didn't have any memory problems. (I also only had unilateral; I refused bilateral because memory loss just was not an option.) He didn't guarantee it would help, but he didn't think it would hurt either. I can say I didn't have any side effects, and I only had to take it during treatment so it wasn't any big deal.