@gijane I’m so sorry, there is just no ending to this dreadful disease, juggling to find the correct medications is like winning the lottery.
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As far as I am aware, Clozaril is not available in an injectable form. Perhaps someone else is familiar with this?
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I have also not heard of Clozaril being available as an injectable. @gijane Perhaps it was a different medication?
I think maybe the doctor might’ve said your son will get “blood draws” once a week for 6 months? Clozapine only comes in daily dosages.
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And @gijane and anyone else out there…
I too am a firm believer in the powers of Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT). I think it’s highly under-utilized. It made a huge difference for our son. Huge.
Google Kitty Dukakis 60 Minutes. Watch the video.
But @GSSP, I think you should get rid of the Jack Nicolson picture. It’s not helping lol.
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A very accurate representation of the real thing… my daughter described it as such in vid and her jaw pain was very bad after…
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It’s a shame that was your daughter’s ECT experience @GSSP. The doctors assured us that wouldn’t be the situation for our son, and they were absolutely right. Our son complained of no pain whatsoever, other than sometimes a mild headache and sometimes some nausea. If it had been anything more than that, I’m sure our son would’ve never followed through. I’m so glad he did. I’m so glad Ashley did too.
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More voltage, more current, convulsions, more pain, more hard core brain re-boot
Did they put him to sleep for the procedure? If not, he did not get a true ECT…
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Yes, he had 15 sessions with general anesthesia and muscle relaxants. The doctors and nurses at the hospital were top notch. It was a positive experience and a positive outcome. We’re so glad he did it because now we know it works, to bring him back.
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Yes, anesthesia is the general protocol nowadays. I was irritated that sound and light effects were used in a production of the “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” I was involved with. The public is generally confused by much of what was said, and shown in the book/play/movie.
Kinsey had various social and political axes to grind with that work that got lost in the various translations, including that mental illness was not an illness, but a reaction to the craziness that society thrusts onto patients. Frankly, I wish he had stuck to Acid Tests, the Merry Pranksters, cavorting with The Grateful Dead and writing for the Whole Earth Catalog. Working a few months on the night shift at a mental hospital might mess with your mind in those days I guess.
I think Faulkner’s stint at working the night shift at a power plant was conducive to much better literature (As I Lay Dying, ICYDK)
Surely there is a difference between doctors,
and patient situations. I know some doctors will be more aggressive in their protocols.
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yep, they look at you after every session, well he says, this time more juice, increase of voltage and current limits, totally subjective by docs…
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Personal experiences are important, but people are different and the practice of many medical procedures has changed over time. Before we rule out things that might be helpful to others, here’s an article from the Mayo Clinic, which is a well-respected source for medical information, dated 2018. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) - Mayo Clinic. Sometimes, we make a decision because it may be our last hope for a person to have any kind of meaningful life, or life at all. My son had catatonia and it got so bad in hospital that the doctor administered it initially without his official permission. (But he agreed to it thereafter.) I don’t even know how many treatments he had but it was a lot more than the average. Turned out that it saved his life, helped him get on track to taking an A/P, and he is doing very well now for a year and a half and continues to improve. He is still intelligent and makes good decisions.
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My son. Takes 450 mg of clozapine daily which requires monthly blood tests
You are right. It’s a large white pill. He takes it at night. It has sure helped him sleep. And so far we’ve had to do the blood draw once a week. We talk to the doctor next via phone, so we’ll see how that goes.
So happy for you. Seems woman want to get better, more than men… I can never see my son wanting help to get better. so sad
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I’m a man, and pretty stubborn about getting better. But men in general are not usually health-obsessed, and tend to be minimalistic about their health routine.
I am too, I just want the bare minimum that will make me feel normal.
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Well good for you, beating those odds of woman usually getting better. Wish my son would talk to you
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Nephew had a similar physical reaction. I would ask that they try to change medication.