EECP

Current medications

Prozac: 10mg

Lamotrigine: 200mg

Olanzapine: 5mg

Levothyroxine: 550mcg

EECP: 50 hours

I haven’t posted in a while.

Mainly because I have been to scared, When I think of doing almost anything I get anxiety at the moment, going for a walk, going back to work, all of these fill me with extreme terror, including writing on this blog.

But I reminded myself how crucial it is for me to keep posting, as I know documenting my journey will be so helpful for other people who are ill with bipolar depression.

Throughout my illness, I have religiously read the blog of Tom Robinson, a former patient of Dr Zamar. This has helped so significantly, every time I feel hopeless (which is all the time), I read his blog. Last week I decided to send my contact details through his blog.

To my surprise I received a phone call from him 30 minutes later. I was almost star-struck, as I had read and listened to so much of his content, that he almost seemed like a celebrity.

We spoke for an hour and a half, I told him my story and he gave me his experience.

He warned me that he had stopped talking to people who are being treated by Dr Zamar as he didn’t want to breach confidentiality agreements, and he doesn’t want to get sucked back in to the world of bipolar depression.

But he said when he saw my enquiry, he saw my phone number and knew that he had time to speak, so he decided to give me a call. For this I am eternally grateful.

I was shocked when he told me that he currently takes NO medications and is well. I would have thought that he would still be on the Levothyroxine at least, but he explained that the high dose (800mcg) was making him extremely skinny, especially around his face, and his friends where concerned. So with Dr Zamars help, he started cutting his dose down, and once he got to zero, he still felt ok, fingers crossed he doesn’t relapse.

Anyway, the subject of my post is EECP.

Dr Zamar explained to me that Covid is what triggered my illness, to which I agree completely. He explained that it coagulates the blood and causes mini strokes through out the brain, so no wonder it can trigger brain diseases/psychiatric illness.

He went as far as telling me that I have ‘long covid’ and he said that there is no way a single doctor could cure me, his treatment would not be enough. So he referred me to Dr Roberts the cardiologist again for a treatment called EECP. It is traditionally used to treat heart conditions such as angina, but it is being used experimentally for long covid, with very promising results.

It involves lying on a bed, with large cuffs wrapped round your legs, hips and bum, and electrodes attached to your chest.

The machine measures your heart rate and on the off beat the cuffs inflate and squeeze very tight, which pushes on your main blood vessels, causing the blood to move round your body.

This essentially works as a second heart, taking the load of of your heart.

it is done for 2 hours everyday, with a short break after the first hour.

I have just completed the 50 hours and although I do feel an improvement, unfortunately I am still not well.

I will be seeing Dr Zamar again in a few weeks time, until then I am sleeping a lot.