Treatment #6

Dr. Hestand was my Doc today in the absence of my usual, Dr. Clopton (on vacation). Hestand did my titration also. Seizure was SHORT today, which concerns me a little. They gave me two stimuli because the first seizure was not of therapeutic duration (only 5 seconds both peripheral and EEG. With a second dose, peripheral was 2 seconds and EEG was 23 (compare to 74 seconds at longest). I rolled out of Pre-Op at 11:35 and into Recovery at 11:57. My blood pressure, which runs high and is treated, was the lowest I remember, ever: 117/59. My pulse O2 before the O2 mask was 99%. Used same mixture of meds today for treatment. Toradol in Pre-Op for headache and jaw ache. Lydicane to start in OR, more etomidate than most people need, versaid (the fast acting benzo to prevent waking up too soon). No issues today. It was over before it began. I notice these little procedural differences between teams of people. With all 5 of the previous treatments, a nurse has taken one of my socks off, wrapped just above my ankle with an ace bandage and then applied a pressure cuff (to prevent the paralytic from reaching that foot which is then used as an indicator of seizure) and placed the removed sock over the toes of the other foot. Today, my sock was left on and used as the ace wrap, and the cuff was put on over the sock.. Makes me more comfortable when everything is the same every time.

Post procedure, they gave me 50mc of Fentanyl followed by 7 mg morphine (4mg and then 3 more). We discussed just leaving the fentanyl out of the scheme next time and going right for the morphine. I took two percocet tabs just before leaving.

I’m a bit concerned about the short seizure today. I have been told and have read that the brain will do what it can to remain in a state of homeostasis (remain unchanged or eradicate change when it occurs), and that the brain become “tolerant” after a while and ends seizures earlier. This is the point when bi-lateral ECT is introduced.
My Beck score today was 35. it seems like the total score is staying about the same, but the individual answers are beginning to change. My jaw pain, which was the worst today and yesterday that it has been, was gone when I woke up. It is slowly creeping back as all the pain meds wear off and the workout form today sets in. Every time I dozed off in Recovery today, this damned alarm went off. I guess my respiration or heart rate were right on the alarm threshold when I was awake, and when I dozed they dipped below, setting off the alarm. At first I thought it was a coincidence.

Another patient in recovery overhead me talking to my nurse about the duration of seizure. He had just had treatment #9. he said the same thing happened to him at #6, and they switched him to bi-lateral. He hadn’t noticed any memory or cognitive differences, and he was feeling much better.