The forgetting of the ER visit and stuff leading up to the administration of the amnesia inducing medication (Diprovan? Versed?) is called retrograde amnesia. This is also what happens to people who have concussions during car accidents or fights--explaining why people can't remember the actual events immediately prior to the injury. It's also a way to separate truth from untruth if someone gives an 'account' of remembering an event that supposedly involved severe head trauma to the point of concussion or brain injury.
Brains store short term memories in three levels. The first lasts only seconds and is limited (7 digit numbers are easily recalled, but 8 or more are difficult without memory aids), the next is short-term that lasts about 20 minutes before long-term memories are laid down. Versed and concussions both interrupt the laying down of long-term memories (as does some types of Alzheimer's disease). The retrograde part can remove completely 20 minutes or possibly more of memories prior to the amnesia inducing method. Newly laid down long-term memories sometimes lack a 'hook' to current continuity of thought--explaining total amnesia for recent events over many years or perhaps an entire lifetime.
It sounds like whatever you got for amnesia was much more effective than you bargained for, causing not only retrograde, but some residual effects two weeks afterward. I suspect you can recall stuff involving lots of emotion or concentration during the weeks with the impaired memory, but ordinary stuff was what was forgotten, right?
It's just my opinion, but I did experience some minor retrograde amnesia on administration of Versed just after I was intubated. I don't remember being intubated, nor the five minutes of conversation with my wife and EMT staff just prior to intubation. I also don't recall being extubated, either, and it took about 10 minutes after extubation before my brain's ability to remember from one moment to the next recovered completely so I can recall that time even now 4 1/2 months later.
Toprol, especially when I was up to 100 mg per day, caused some memory problems--I can't recall events of several days in a row at the worst time. Now that I'm off, my memory works fine with only a few hiccups here and there.
Chris
