Escalate to non-medication
By Mon, according to a doctor there, mum's restlessness in the morning worsened. It was getting harder to restrain her from banging her head on the floor. Apparently, she heard "voices" telling her to do that. The team discussed and recommended Electroconvulsive Therapy ("ECT"). The idea was to significantly improve mum's condition and thus allowing medication time to take effect.
There would be a minimum of 3 sessions, conducted on odd weekdays (Mon, Wed, Fri). During each session, her brain would be stimulated by electrical impulses lasting less than a minute and done twice. Thus the whole procedure would last less than 2 minutes. This would be done in an operating theatre and she would be under general general anesthesia during this procedure.
If she response to the first two sessions (i.e. 4 stimulation), then this procedure would be conducted during future sessions to achieve two more positive response i.e. a total of 6 effective stimulation. If there was no positive response during the initial two sessions, then this procedure would be canceled and she would go back to being treated with only medication.
In the meantime, she would still be given the current medication with new inclusion of Sertraline (anti-depressant). Lithium would be given after assessing the effect of ECT.
After the discussion with the doctors, we visited mum. She looked worse than the day before. Stared blankly. Only thing she said was "I want to go home." She did, however, took the newspapers we brought for her (she asked for it previously) when visiting hour was over. Unlike other wards, during visiting hours, patients are let out of the ward and into the visitors' area but not all patients are allowed to do so. Some could only converse with visitors behind the locked gate.
It was up and down each time we visited her. The worst thus far was two days before ECT: her restlessness and urge to bang her head was so great that she had to be restrained a few times such that she wasn't allowed into the visitors' area. Instead, the nurses kindly let one of us in to visit her. First, it was my dad and then I went in with cheese sandwich and bottle of honey since she refused to have the ward's lunch. She only had a bite of the sandwich and a gulp of the honey. She wanted to get out of the restraint although aware of the uncontrollable urge to bang her head. In fact, we were told that at one point, she asked to be restrained. Later, she asked me to pat her hand while she tried to get some sleep. Lasted for about 10 to 15 minutes, interrupted with request for scratching certain itchy spots on face, forehead and ear.
As a result, they added another dose of Olanzanpine in the afternoon i.e. 2.5mg 3 times a day and took off Setraline.
The day before ECT she was so "disturbed" that we weren't allowed to visit her :(
I really hope ECT would bring significant progress to mum's recover, so that she can go home as soon as possible.
There would be a minimum of 3 sessions, conducted on odd weekdays (Mon, Wed, Fri). During each session, her brain would be stimulated by electrical impulses lasting less than a minute and done twice. Thus the whole procedure would last less than 2 minutes. This would be done in an operating theatre and she would be under general general anesthesia during this procedure.
If she response to the first two sessions (i.e. 4 stimulation), then this procedure would be conducted during future sessions to achieve two more positive response i.e. a total of 6 effective stimulation. If there was no positive response during the initial two sessions, then this procedure would be canceled and she would go back to being treated with only medication.
In the meantime, she would still be given the current medication with new inclusion of Sertraline (anti-depressant). Lithium would be given after assessing the effect of ECT.
After the discussion with the doctors, we visited mum. She looked worse than the day before. Stared blankly. Only thing she said was "I want to go home." She did, however, took the newspapers we brought for her (she asked for it previously) when visiting hour was over. Unlike other wards, during visiting hours, patients are let out of the ward and into the visitors' area but not all patients are allowed to do so. Some could only converse with visitors behind the locked gate.
It was up and down each time we visited her. The worst thus far was two days before ECT: her restlessness and urge to bang her head was so great that she had to be restrained a few times such that she wasn't allowed into the visitors' area. Instead, the nurses kindly let one of us in to visit her. First, it was my dad and then I went in with cheese sandwich and bottle of honey since she refused to have the ward's lunch. She only had a bite of the sandwich and a gulp of the honey. She wanted to get out of the restraint although aware of the uncontrollable urge to bang her head. In fact, we were told that at one point, she asked to be restrained. Later, she asked me to pat her hand while she tried to get some sleep. Lasted for about 10 to 15 minutes, interrupted with request for scratching certain itchy spots on face, forehead and ear.
As a result, they added another dose of Olanzanpine in the afternoon i.e. 2.5mg 3 times a day and took off Setraline.
The day before ECT she was so "disturbed" that we weren't allowed to visit her :(
I really hope ECT would bring significant progress to mum's recover, so that she can go home as soon as possible.
Comments
Must be difficult seeing that she's 'not herself'. *hugs*
Yeah, it is :( Thanks
I believe that patients do hear voices as I asked them for details. Now I also have this suffering of hearing different weird noises on both ears which no one else could hear. I heard funny noises of people talking in foreign tongues too. I concluded that my antennae must have tapped reception from the skies.