FAQ/Help |
Calendar |
Search |
Grand Member
Member Since Nov 2019
Location: In my head, mostly
Posts: 754
4 31 hugs
given |
#41
Quote:
Yeah, I will definitely tell him that. I feel like I can't take any more and I could snap at any second. Seriously don't know how I'm supposed to get through two more months of this. |
|
Reply With Quote |
*Beth*, Daonnachd
|
*Beth*
|
catches the flowers
Member Since Jul 2019
Location: Downtown Vibes, California
Posts: 15,701
(SuperPoster!)
4 23.7k hugs
given |
#42
Yes, it seems inhumane to request that you wait so long.
__________________ |
Reply With Quote |
Magnate
Member Since Feb 2006
Location: Napa Valley
Posts: 2,116
18 3,379 hugs
given |
#43
I don't remember how long it took before they got me in, but they did insist I get a full physical workup including electrocardiogram. So check with the ECT department to learn if that's required. It will allow you to avoid any extra delay. Good luck!
__________________ >< |
Reply With Quote |
Grand Member
Member Since Nov 2019
Location: In my head, mostly
Posts: 754
4 31 hugs
given |
#44
|
Reply With Quote |
*Beth*
|
Grand Member
Member Since Nov 2019
Location: In my head, mostly
Posts: 754
4 31 hugs
given |
#45
Quote:
Thank you, I will be sure to ask them that. I suspect that they're planning to do this on that first appointment I have, because they did say I would be seeing a bunch of different people that day. Hopefully it means treatment can be started not too long after that. |
|
Reply With Quote |
catches the flowers
Member Since Jul 2019
Location: Downtown Vibes, California
Posts: 15,701
(SuperPoster!)
4 23.7k hugs
given |
#46
__________________ |
Reply With Quote |
Grand Member
Member Since Nov 2019
Location: In my head, mostly
Posts: 754
4 31 hugs
given |
#47
|
Reply With Quote |
*Beth*
|
Grand Member
Member Since Nov 2019
Location: In my head, mostly
Posts: 754
4 31 hugs
given |
#48
In preparation for the ECT I'm making a list of stuff I need to remember. So far I have:
|
Reply With Quote |
*Beth*
|
Magnate
Member Since Feb 2006
Location: Napa Valley
Posts: 2,116
18 3,379 hugs
given |
#49
I would slip your notes into a book, leave the book somewhere sensible like bedside table, then write note to self on hand about the book.
__________________ >< |
Reply With Quote |
*Beth*
|
Magnate
Member Since May 2004
Location: Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,316
19 548 hugs
given |
#50
Let someone you know and trust in on where you’re keeping it. Maybe, give them a sealed copy of it.
__________________ It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction! ---"Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society". Abraham Lincoln Online. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. September 30, 1859. |
Reply With Quote |
Grand Member
Member Since Nov 2019
Location: In my head, mostly
Posts: 754
4 31 hugs
given |
#51
I forgot to reply, but thank you both for the suggestions! I think I can go for a combination of approaches, keeping a note as to where the list is and maybe giving a copy to my wife.
|
Reply With Quote |
Grand Member
Member Since Nov 2019
Location: In my head, mostly
Posts: 754
4 31 hugs
given |
#52
I finally started ECT treatment last week, after nearly nine months of campaigning to get treated. I've completed two treatments now and I'm scheduled for the third tomorrow. Although I'm still a long shot from being "cured," it's already becoming clear that the treatment is helping, more than any med has helped so far. Hopefully the improvements will continue and the memory loss will stay at a minimum. So far I haven't noticed anything important missing, but I understand those effects can be cumulative. I have to say that general anaesthesia twice a week is pretty rough, but so far it's worth it, although the anaesthesia hangover does make it kind of hard to accurately judge the effects on my energy and concentration levels. It's too bad I wasted so much time not getting treated at that first hospital. Oh how I would love to tell those arrogant doctors "I told you so!" But I'll settle for getting better instead.
|
Reply With Quote |
*Beth*, Nammu
|
*Beth*, Sometimes psychotic
|
catches the flowers
Member Since Jul 2019
Location: Downtown Vibes, California
Posts: 15,701
(SuperPoster!)
4 23.7k hugs
given |
#53
Well, it's about time, isn't it?! Honestly, the tone of your post sounds lighter and healthier than any of the previous posts of yours that I've read. Do you know yet how many treatments you'll be having?
__________________ |
Reply With Quote |
Grand Member
Member Since Nov 2019
Location: In my head, mostly
Posts: 754
4 31 hugs
given |
#54
Yes, it definitely is! I don't know yet how many treatments I'll need, but I'm hopeful it won't be twenty (which is the upper bound they gave me) and that I won't need bilateral treatment. They say some people are better by treatment number six. Right now I'm already noticing improvements and I'm kind of able to sleep without benzos or Seroquel again, so who knows, maybe I'll be one of those people.
It's strange, but as I'm starting to improve a bit, I'm only now truly starting to notice how bad it was. I guess I had forgotten what normal was like and I didn't really believe that things could be better anymore. Sometimes I still don't, but now there are also times that I do believe that things can be better and I can actually feel it. I think maybe I was so afraid to exaggerate my depression that I was actually underestimating it. I'm kind of on the fence about whether I should pursue a complaint at the first hospital, where they kept me in the dark for months and then declined to treat me when I got angry at them and the lack of information because they claimed that my anger showed that I had "personality issues" and that therefore "ECT wouldn't work." Their impression of me was completely wrong because they never took more than a few minutes to talk to me and didn't listen to the information provided by my own Pdoc. So when I didn't immediately fit into their stereotype of what a depressed person should look like, they just wrote me off. I think that's bad practice. I don't think it was unreasonable at all to get angry after I waited for months, was refused any information, had to submit to a whole bunch of "examinations" without knowing the reason, and never heard back from them when they promised to call. On the one hand I think it would be bad for my recovery to waste more time and energy on those people, especially since they're likely too arrogant to listen, but on the other hand I now have proof that the ECT is working and that the depression is real and they did delay my treatment by nearly four months for no good reason. It's hard to just set all that anger aside. I'm not sure what's the best thing to do. I also find that I'm still really grieving about all the time I've lost to depression these past few years, and all the damage it has caused. But grief is different and a lot more manageable than depression. I think that's something I can work with and honestly I'm looking forward to it, to begin moving on, hopefully. |
Reply With Quote |
catches the flowers
Member Since Jul 2019
Location: Downtown Vibes, California
Posts: 15,701
(SuperPoster!)
4 23.7k hugs
given |
#55
Quote:
__________________ |
|
Reply With Quote |
Grand Member
Member Since Nov 2019
Location: In my head, mostly
Posts: 754
4 31 hugs
given |
#56
Thank you, and thanks for all your help throughout this whole ordeal! I won't say I'm quite there yet, but yes, I'm starting to feel very glad that I did persevere!
|
Reply With Quote |
*Beth*
|
*Beth*
|
Junior Member
Member Since Jun 2016
Location: Ontario
Posts: 18
7 2 hugs
given |
#57
Quote:
|
|
Reply With Quote |
Legendary
Member Since Oct 2004
Location: usa
Posts: 11,199
19 2,742 hugs
given |
#58
I had fifteen bilateral treatments and it seemed to help I gues
__________________ Bipolar 1 w/psychotic features or schizoaffective bipolar type PTSD generalized anxiety OCD celexa, prazosin, Lybalvi and prn zyprexa and klonopin |
Reply With Quote |
Grand Member
Member Since Nov 2019
Location: In my head, mostly
Posts: 754
4 31 hugs
given |
#59
Thanks all, I've had only three unilateral treatments so far and I already feel better than I did on Seroquel, which was the most effective drug for me. This is the first time in over a year that I've had moments when I felt anything like normal, and I had forgotten what it was like. A few days after each ECT treatment, the effect starts to wear off a bit and the depressed feelings start to come back, no matter how much I try to prevent it. The contrast underscores how bad it was, and I think it also goes to show that I can't consciously control this depression or force myself to "snap out of it." Still, I feel better than I have in a long time, and if all goes well the effects from the ECT should linger a little longer each time, until hopefully I get well enough to make the transition to maintenance treatment and start living my life again.
So far I haven't noticed any important memories missing yet, the only thing is I feel a little fuzzy now and then (but no more so than I did due to the depression) and sometimes I get these deja vu feelings, but I'm not sure whether those are real or I'm just imagining them because I'm afraid to forget things. |
Reply With Quote |
*Beth*
|
*Beth*
|
Magnate
Member Since Oct 2018
Location: USA
Posts: 2,788
5 7 hugs
given |
#60
I went through ECT on two separate occasions. I honestly wasn't aware of what I wasn't remembering until after it was all said and done. So for instance, we went to see a moving while I was going through ECT. I completely forgot about it, and it wasn't until reminded that I had seen the movie that it very vaguely came to my memory. It was mostly things like that, and I was largely oblivious to the memory issues during the actual treatment. So, take notes, and have someone who can help you navigate any memory things that do come up.
My husband had bilateral and had much bigger memory issues - even more of a confusion. We had to really watch him more during treatment. Mine was unilateral and the memory issues were basically what I described above. I probably could have worked on days I wasn't having treatment (but it was summer and I was off). I never did maintenance treatments and never really needed them. |
Reply With Quote |
Reply |
|