Overslept... and Thinking
So my last journal was about finally getting some reasonable amounts of sleep. Well, last night I overslept for about three hours and was late for work by about 45 min. There was a big wreck right inside the front gate of the base where I work, so I blamed my tardiness on that, but three hours! I slept from 10 PM to nearly 7:30 AM. That is a considerable amount of time for me. I usually get up around 4:30 AM to walk (would run, but my heart won't let me), then S3 (S$$$, Shower and Shave), and off to work. I will plan on cutting back on the drugs. 10 pm to 4:30 am is more than enough.
I am thinking about my time in the hospital. I could have cared for better (doctor). I should have taken in a book to read that relates to my BP status. Did I use that time to my best advantage, or did I just stare at the walls while trying to sleep? I need to be more productive, and that includes when I am in a mental hospital. On the doctor, he should have given me the plan earlier to decide how to go to. His stand-in over the holiday weekend sucked big donkey balls. You got two questions, and then out you went. He did not care at all for the patients assigned to him. Doc, I needed to know when the ECT. Let me get my head around staying for another couple of days. You talked me into some snorting procedure in your office, but it still is not ECT. Where was the plan? Where was the timeline?
Replies
Thor, I think your body finally caught up on some much needed sleep. In the hospital, many Pdocs and others have an administrative visit role. Translation, they check with staff and charting versus actually meeting with the patient face to face. The best you can do is what I did. The discharge plan must include the action plan. As the patient, you can request it. May not give all the info you want, but will be a beginning. No up side to looking at the woulda, coulda, shoulda deal. What are you going to do today to get answers? Lots of supportive hugs.
Back up, slow down....whoa, and halt. So are you going to do ECT? You haven't mentioned that part yet.
Do you not think it would be a better plan to see how the new medication regime works and give it a little time to work and see how that goes?
I'll play resident expert on ECT....as being the only person around here who's done 36 ECT Sessions over a 3.5 month period. You know that foggy, brainless feeling you complained about post-hospital, post-thorazine period when you went back to work last time.....well when your doing ECT its about 50 times worse. You won't be able to work, you'll have to take a leave of absence. Are you prepared to do that? Are you planning on In-patient ECT or Out-patient ECT, if Out-patient is you wife going to be driving you back and forth for half days at the hospital every other day or so?
Just general questions as to where your thinking is at.
You two always have the best counsel. ECT knew about some short term issues, but not at the level you describe. I can not take off for a couple of months for this treatment. I would be fired. Maybe if there is some downtime in between contracts, I can go inside for the treatments. I have an appt next week with an ECT doc. Just info and to talk about scheduling options. I think I would like to go inside and be inside for the whole round of treatments if it is faster.
My doc just sucks at doing a plan for the patient. I am not sure that I can trust him any longer as the lack of plans is a critical item for me as it should for all patients. Can I trust him with my mind when he can't tell me what to do next.
When I was doing ECT I did it In-patient for most of it, it was every M, W, F and your under general anesthesia, so it takes about half a day each time. I'm in Accounting and Financial Management now and was at that time, there was no way I could do that kind of work during ECT. I did ECT longer than most people do, having multiple Neurological issues and my screwed up genetics my brain works a little different. But I took a full 6 months off from "life' basically, then when I went back to work it was on a very limited part time basis.
With ECT you're going to have memory issues, you're going to have headaches, dealing with that much anesthesia, it all takes a toll...it's not an easy process. So yeah, the kind of work you do, we have similar skill sets, you won't be able to do that during ECT. Most people do ECT for 3 - 6 weeks. So when you meet with the ECT Dr., just have a really good set of questions as to what you can do during, what the side effects you can expect, how it will affect your Cardiac issues, how long he thinks you'll need, In-patient vs. Out-patient, etc.
As for your current Pdoc, if you're not getting the kind of treatment from him that fits your needs, then it might be time to get a 2nd opinion. You have to be comfortable with what he's doing for you. I'm the kind of person that needs a plan in place, so I understand what you're saying. Sometimes the first Pdoc isn't always the right fit, there's nothing wrong with that, it's not unusual. They work for you, you have the right to find the one that gives you the type of care that you need.