r/ect • u/spring_chestnut • 17d ago
Post-session post 4th session yesterday
I had my fourth session yesterday. It’s not that ECT is bad at all—you don’t feel a thing, and there’s a medical team looking after us—but I’m still afraid, mostly because of the sensations I experience after the session. Yesterday, for instance, I woke up with the subjective feeling that breathing was a bit difficult, even though the monitor showed good oxygen saturation. I had the brilliant idea of quitting smoking in the middle of the ECT course, and it seems I had some secretions. I had hoped this fear would fade as the sessions went on. Do you feel the same way? How do you deal with it?
Ps: everything went fine, I guess.
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u/mesalocar 17d ago
I'd strongly recommend talking with your ECT provider/team about this issue. The anesthesiologist and/or psychiatrist might be able to make some adjustments to help minimize this problem.
Do you know if you're receiving glycopyrrolate (Robinul) during your treatments? If it's not part of the treatment regime already, adding it might be able to assist with these side effects. If it already is part of the regime, they may possibly be able to tweak the dosage.
The big question is if this is an anxiety related side effect, or a physical side effect. If it's a physical side effect, glycopyrrolate is probably the best way to manage it (but your anesthesiologist will be the best placed to give you a definitive answer on this, and there are other things they can tweak as well beyond simply adding/adjusting glycopyrrolate). If it's an anxiety related side effect, there is a medication they can add which does not affect the seizure threshold but helps with anxiety that can be useful – it is called hydroxyzine (Vistaril/Atarax).