Posted by nickm on October 21, 2003, at 8:21:35
In reply to Re: Intraperitoneal Anesthesia in ECT Treatments? » nickm, posted by galkeepinon on October 21, 2003, at 3:42:01
Thank you so much for your answer. What intrigues me is that the anesthesia for the first three ECTs was general, and then after the intraperitoneal lower abdomen on the 4th, they went back to the general anesthesia for the 5th. By the way, my wife was coaxed into having the ECTs. The doctor never explained the side effects to her, and literally got on his knees, his face about a foot from hers, massaged her shoulders and took her hand, and reassured her, "Count one, two, and it's all over." Never gave her a word about anesthesia side effects, dangers, or long term memory loss. My wife is sixty three. She had lost 35 pounds and was very weak and confused when she was admitted to the hospital. My wife signed consent forms she never even read for her admission, and as soon as she was in the psychiatric ward she was pumped down with drugs: thorazine, serzone, trazodone, ambien, intravenous ativan, etc. When I went to see her in the hospital she could hardly walk, talk, and still couldn't sleep - she was so anxious and scared.
I'm looking into legal actions.
After the ECTs, on Abilify, Serzone, Trazodone, and Klonopin, she developed akathisia, dyskinesia, and dysthonia. The psychiatrist ignored her symptoms and kept raising her doses of Klonopin to 4-5 mg per day although she had been on Klonopin for years, and I objected that she had developed a dependence to it. He said she didn't have akathisia, etc., and that she didn't have dependence to anything. As soon as she went off Abilify, and discontinued Serzone, her akathisia got better. We had to go to a different doctor to help her.
She's also now on benadryl - anti cholinergic action - for Parkinson like symptoms, and the new doctor took her off the Serzone (Liver damage dangers, not prescribed in Europe or Canada any more, and this doctor says he would never prescribe it to any of his patients). He has her detoxifying for a week, and then will take a look at anti-depressants.
He talked a lot about Duloxetil, which is not for sale yet.
Thanks again,
Nickm
> Wow! Been through a lot, sorry.
> I received 9 ECT treatments back in 2000. I was to receive 10, but stopped.
> ECT for *me* was a VERY, VERY anxiety-provoking experience!!
> To this day, I have memory loss. It hurts.
> I lost 2 years of my memory prior to the ECT.
>
> For your wife, IMHO, conditions that could have caused the anesthesiologist to go for intraperitoneal anesthesia on the 4th application of the ECTs could have been for prevention of more stress and anxiety as well as the mere environmental stressors of just going under for ECT.
> I would personally ask the anesthesiologist why he/she did this...
> ECT hits a nerve for *me*...literally!
> Take care and good luck.
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> > My wife received five ECT treatments in September, which had to be stopped after the 5th. On the 4th one she was given intraperitoneal anesthesia, although she had no organic or physical conditions that may have required this. She was having panic attacks and anxiety before the ECTs began, during the time they were being administered, and after. After tht 4th ECT her condition, mental and physical, deteriorated significantly. She now has long memory loss, that is for events beyond six months before the start of the treatments. She has forgotten birthdates, names of wives of our male grown children, deaths of family members, and other such. She is still agitated, and has akathisia from abilify - discontinued on 10/12/03 - and has significant cognitive impairment (though getting slowly better), and tiredness, fatigue, and anxiety.
> >
> > What conditions could have caused the anesthesiologist to go for intraperitoneal anesthesia on the 4th application of the ECTs. As I said, she had give, and they were applied every other day, two on the wednesday and friday of the first week, and then three on monday, wednesday, and friday of the second week.
> >
> > Thank you for your any info or help on this.
> >
> > nickm
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poster:nickm
thread:271281
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031021/msgs/271391.html