Posted by Enigma on March 17, 2006, at 17:23:32
In reply to To Enigma, posted by denise1966 on March 17, 2006, at 15:54:52
Hi. My memory of the events isn't the best, but.. as far as I can recall, I had 1-2 unilateral treatments which didn't seem to have too much effect, so they switched me to bilateral.
Ok, just checked with the wife.. I was supposed to have 12 treatments total - 3 times a week for 4 weeks. There were a couple of bad weather days, so they cancelled a couple. So, I had 2-3 a week for 4 weeks.
I lowered my dose on my nardil (on my own) to see if the ect was having any effect (which the doc did agree to before my treatments started), and the arrogant !@#^@! of a doctor then changed his mind, then got mad at me for tapering off, and tried to "punish" me by not giving me the last 5 treatments. I called them up and bitched the hell out of them, more like a guilt trip, so they met me 1/2 way and gave me 3 more treatments to total 10.
I think I started feeling better around the last few treatments, which continued (feeling better that is) until now (2 months since my last treatment), until I had a severely bad depression episode early this week. Worst one in months. I was bedridden. It "cleared up" in 2-3 days, thankfully. I'm currently not taking any meds, but still on disability, as I'm not quite "there" yet.
So, from my experience, I would try to get at least 5 treatments before giving up on ECT, not that it's up to you (each doctor has totally different opinions on ECT I have found). One doctor turned me down, saying ECT wouldn't work for me) so I had to find another doctor who thought ECT would benefit me, and another hosptial, 30-40 mins away, to get treated. The 1st hospital was only 10 mins away :(.
Also, at least for me, the bilateral treatments were much more effective, but yes, I suffered with memory loss. I forgot some small events completely, and I now have some additional memory retention problems, but, over the last few years, my memory has been getting worse and worse, odd for someone only 36 years old. I blame the depression, and all the 20+ odd meds I've been taking over the past 5+ years. Who really knows.
Not sure if this is related at all, but I was suffering severe headaches during ECT. The doctor kept swearing up and down that ECT would not cause this, but that seemed like a *very* strange opinion to me. Hooking electrodes to your temples, zapping you into convulsive shock, and that wouldn't cause headaches???
Anyway, turns out I picked up a sinus infection while in the hospital (somehow), and have been suffering from all kinds of "fun" symptoms for the last 8 weeks. I'm on my 3rd antibiotic. I'm probably suffering from some nardil withdrawal too. I tapered off, by tapered too quickly, I think.. only over 1/2 a week to a week. I should have known better after the withdrawal nightmare I had from effexor that lasted 6+ months.
Hope this info helps, even though I rambled quite a bit. ;)
> Hi Enigma,
>
> Did you have unilateral ECT or Bilateral? As I've heard that Bilateral can cause the most severe memory problems. Also have you been to ect.org site as there a lot of people on there who've had it and may be able to advise you.
> Having said that there are a lot of people on that board who are very anti-ECT and might scare you with their stories.
>
> I had two Unilateral treatments which wasn't enough to know if it would have worked but I don't have any memory problems.
>
> Can you tell me how many treatments you had to have before you noticed any benefits?
>
>
> Thanks....Denise
poster:Enigma
thread:620189
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060315/msgs/621381.html