ECT #24
I Had ECT this morning. I am doing ECT once a week now. That is a big change from three times a week when I first started. One thing I learned today was that I am given a paralytic drug that requires that I be on mechanical breathing. The drug paralyzes everything! That sounds scary and rather serious. I also felt crowded out or unwelcomingly the center of attention. I had two nurses and four doctors hovering over my bedside.
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Just see how it goes is this is something different. I hope it helps your depression and I hope you can just do it once a week I think more than once a week would be very hard. I think that you should check with your doctor and ask if you are supposed to feel some type of moods and accept them and get through them but use DBT skills to focus on something if you do feel like you're going down does that make any sense? I meant to say if you're feeling depressed if you can use DBT skills and feel mood just move through it and pass it is it just my thought so I'm not sure. It's just my thoughts and I don't know anything about the therapy you're getting hugs
Big hug for you Thor.... How's the ECT going sweetie?.... Big hug....xo
Spencer I think they explained that your under general anesthesia during ECT? You and I talked about that way back...Perhaps due to the confusion of ECT you forgot.
Yes they give you those drugs because that's part of being intubated and protecting your airway during anesthesia. Its a routine part of the process. They aren't long term and wear out of your system pretty fast. "Succinylcholine" also helps with ECT because as a paralytic or extreme muscle relaxant, it reduces risk of harm to yourself caused by the induction of Seizures during ECT. Trust me most of us who have a Seizure Disorder and have Grand Mal Seizures would love to have a shot of "Succ's" before hand so we didn't beat the hell out of ourselves.
Sorry you woke up today to the confusion of many Dr.'s and nurses around your bed, but they're there to make sure your okay and waking up as safely and in the best health as possible. Glad your down to once a week and hope things are going well with all of your Treatments combined.
Take care.
I feel good afterward and for about a week or so. It will not be a magical cure but it is a good cure for awhile. I still am depressed most of the time but that might just be who I am. I will be doing weekly ECT for three weeks and then every other week after that for several months.
Older - Thanks for the info. I knew about the anesthesia, but not that I had to have someone breathe for me. I guess it makes sense. ECT is a more serious treatment than most. It all is a bit scar,y and I am nervous each time. I have medical trauma that happened to be me when I was a cardiac patient, so those memories come back unbidden each time I lay there for an ECT.
Its not easy, and it is scary....as someone who's had 31 surgeries and my fair share of trauma of emergent post surgical things done while I was awake...I get you. People tend to expect you to just "get used to it"...I don't, haven't and probably won't.
I play my brain games in pre-op before procedures and such these days and try to keep my mind busy....I don't give that phone up until they start to wheel me away...keeping busy helps keep the anxiety down and the memories away some.
I'm glad you're on the back end of this its a hard treatment to go through, luckily not many of us have to, you've battled through my friend.
Katy- thanks. Do you think ECT quals as surgery?
No I consider it more of a procedure. I've had 31 actual surgeries in the last 21 years. The 39 ECT treatments I had go in my "procedure" category and I've had around 127 various procedures where I had to be anesthetized over the last 34 years....I probably glow in the dark at night. lol
I get just as nervous for a procedure as I do when I'm getting cut open....I don't like the feeling of "going under".