The end?
Well, I completed the 4 weeks of TMS in spite of many obstacles and challenges. I am back home in my "castle", sleeping in my own bed and comforted by the familiarity of it all.
The last week was the easiest in terms of tolerating the treatments. I remain hopeful that my mood continues to be stable and that I NEVER have another episode of depression again - that however is not statistically realistic.
Before going home, I spoke with my doctor about that uncomfortable subject - maintenance treatments and follow-up. The doc wants to see me in a couple of months to follow up on how I am doing. We discussed the challenges faced by patients who are out of area and who require maintenance treatments or re-treatments. I will likely be one of those patients.
In the event of needed more sessions, we talked about options. Obviously I am not in a position to be able to return frequently for a week or two of treatment. The doctor mentioned a recent study done out of California where patients were given 10 rTMS sessions in one day as an alternative to protocols requiring a weeks worth of maintenance treatment. The outcome was the same. Patients did just as well with the 10 treatments in one day as they did with treatments for a week or two. That being said, it MAY be an option for me although the doctor did not want to promise that for me.
The thing I am focussing on now is RECALIBRATION. For me, recalibration is learning to change my habits from being in a depressed state to being in a "normal" or "baseline" state. I have been depressed for so long, you learn to change your activities and expectations to fit how you can function. Now that I am treated, and am feeling slightly better I need to make sure that I am operating at maximum capacity. So, I am going to recalibrate.
This will be my last blog post. I want to say that I am so thankful to my angels who ended up being essential to my successful treatment and my husband who was amazing and the biggest support and my mom for calling me every day even when I didn't want or felt like I needed her to. My friends (I am sure they'd die if I named them) who were there for me with phone calls, texts, emails, facebook memes that I knew were just for me and everything else, THANK YOU. And finally to my partner in crime "Shirley" who goes with me EVERYWHERE...thanks doll.
The last week was the easiest in terms of tolerating the treatments. I remain hopeful that my mood continues to be stable and that I NEVER have another episode of depression again - that however is not statistically realistic.
Before going home, I spoke with my doctor about that uncomfortable subject - maintenance treatments and follow-up. The doc wants to see me in a couple of months to follow up on how I am doing. We discussed the challenges faced by patients who are out of area and who require maintenance treatments or re-treatments. I will likely be one of those patients.
In the event of needed more sessions, we talked about options. Obviously I am not in a position to be able to return frequently for a week or two of treatment. The doctor mentioned a recent study done out of California where patients were given 10 rTMS sessions in one day as an alternative to protocols requiring a weeks worth of maintenance treatment. The outcome was the same. Patients did just as well with the 10 treatments in one day as they did with treatments for a week or two. That being said, it MAY be an option for me although the doctor did not want to promise that for me.
The thing I am focussing on now is RECALIBRATION. For me, recalibration is learning to change my habits from being in a depressed state to being in a "normal" or "baseline" state. I have been depressed for so long, you learn to change your activities and expectations to fit how you can function. Now that I am treated, and am feeling slightly better I need to make sure that I am operating at maximum capacity. So, I am going to recalibrate.
This will be my last blog post. I want to say that I am so thankful to my angels who ended up being essential to my successful treatment and my husband who was amazing and the biggest support and my mom for calling me every day even when I didn't want or felt like I needed her to. My friends (I am sure they'd die if I named them) who were there for me with phone calls, texts, emails, facebook memes that I knew were just for me and everything else, THANK YOU. And finally to my partner in crime "Shirley" who goes with me EVERYWHERE...thanks doll.
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