[Wild Coyote]

Originally Posted by Jedi67

yes, it's the Endocrinologist I see on Thursday. my GP is trying to track down the reason behind my BP spiking when I am on 3 meds for my blood pressure. at one point they wanted to ween me off my psych meds to have even more testing done, but that did not go well.

I'm stressed because it seems like I'm constantly getting lab work, scans, ultrasounds and MRI's. it is so overwhelming. I wish after this appt that they just find nothing wrong so this can just end. but, tbh, my last BP reading at my recent visit was normal. and I am losing weight. I've lost 31 pounds since April. at least I have that to feel good about. just too much on my plate and it cuts into my "me" time lol.

thanks so much for the kind words, WildCoyote! much appreciated

Again, I am so sorry you have been going through so much. It can get disheartening, I know. I have had years when it seems like all I did was to go to see specialists or to end up in the ER.

Three blood pressure meds seems like a lot. There are probably side-effects form each of them? ( I have used different ones to try to control migraines and I have found the cure ot be worse than the condition we were hoping to treat.)

My brother has high blood pressure and has to keep it in check to keep his job. He drinks beet juice to keep his blood pressure in check. He has a small glass in the morning. He has had to be on multiple BP meds, too, in the past. Beet juice does not work in every case, but it has worked for him, repeatedly. You may have tried it and/or may not be interested in it. I have found his experience quite interesting.

I hope life gets easier for you, pronto!

[Wild Coyote]

I had posted this in the "physical check-in thread. I don't usually post the same post in different threads. Today, this sums up my day very well:

It has been quite a day! I have been all over the map. I was extremely ill at 4 am; however, I did recover enough to spend quality time with company.

Here is what I have learned today: There is a "body therapy" called "Block Therapy." As I understand this, it is used to help people with painful conditions, especially those conditions that have a "myofascial"component. I had a hands-on lesson in Block Therapy today by one of the very few authorized instructors in the U.S.! Lucky me! It's fascinating and I am going to look into it further.

I mention this here because this is the physical check-in thread, this is a very physical approach/method, and I wonder if this approach might be helpful to anyone else?

Welcome to Block Therapy > Block Therapy

My day had started off all wrong (at 4am) and I could have called off meeting with company today; instead I was given quite a gift for just showing up!
Many times, I find, I reap benefits if I make sure I just "show up," as opposed to isolating, feeling overwhelmed, etc.

Love to All!

[yellow_fleurs]

WC thanks for sharing! I might have to look into that.

[yellow_fleurs]

I was dragging today. Got to work later than I had wanted to, just couldn't make myself get up. Felt zoned out and tired today, and just apathetic. I also felt irritable. I always get worried people can tell that I am "off" and I don't want people to think I'm just really weird or something. I mean, I guess maybe I am kind of, but yeah. It just makes me want to be really avoidant. Considering all the healthy changes I have tried in my life, I am realizing that this is going to be hard to keep my brain stable. I think I am too scared to try anything that will mess with my hormones, but I could always talk to my psychiatrist again. We'll see, I am not sure the grass would be greener if I tried medication, I mean I am functioning for the most part and don't have to deal with side effects right now. I am not exercising that much yet, if I can increase that maybe that will help my mental health. I think I will try that first for awhile.

Hope everyone is doing well, and if today was not good that tomorrow is better. Sending compassion to all.

[Pookyl]

Off to see my pdoc this morning. Hoping to start cutting back on my Seroquel XR from the 400 mg down to 300mg. Don’t mind the 12.5mg Seroquel IR that I take every morning. But I suspect she won’t touch anything until my other doctor decides by how much I need to reduce my Thyroxine.

[Blueberrybook]

My weekend was pretty screwed up after probably spending most of the week taking double the dose of Abilify I’d been prescribed. I guess my symptoms worried H; he called my 2 sisters. They kept calling all day long to check on me. I still don’t know if feeding my cats honey was sleepwalking or hallucination. H said I talked lucidly to him and seemed awake, and you do hear stories of people driving while sleepwalking and such. Yelling at H’s jigsaw thinking my daughter and youngest niece were playing some sly form of hide-n-seek and did not occur around sleep. I remember nothing of the honey incident and nearly all of the hide-seek incident. Small things confused me all weekend.

I see my pdoc on Thursday. Both my sisters and H say I should bring all my meds with me, dump them on the pdoc’s desk and say, “Tell me how I’m supposed to manage this?” I have the Protonix which the GI seems convinced I need. I’d do anything to never have to have ulcer surgery again. So Protonix is going nowhere.

Then, I have many, many scripts from the pdoc , to be fair, most of which he inherited when he took over my treatment. The pdoc I had before didn’t like prescribing so much, but she was slow to add or take away certain meds over the 10 years I saw her. It was her opinion that being on SSRIs and in stuck in the cogs of a very large and not great county mental health care team definitely didn’t help me as they prescribed SSRIs blindly, Trazodone was practically thrown at you with one or two or 3 SSRIs, tons of benzos, xanax, sometimes they’d spice it up and add a little Geodon or Risperdal to the mix, along with Ativan too. It’s a wonder I’m still here after all that.

Unfortunately , I have no idea how this pdoc will take it and I am nervous to do it too. I’ve not generally been a rebellious patient except when I had a manic episode collide with a psych appointment or when I was in the psych hospital. I really need some medication management, not more pills to make it harder to manage. And while I have been on Wellbutrin for years, I am not sure it’s even helping me, and for reasons unknown, I feel like my IQ goes down 10 points every time I take it. I had the same problem with it on fewer pills and again on a higher dosage (maybe 300 mg) and I have been down crying a lot lately. God knows I can’t deal with the Klonopin first though now I am able to take 3 pills daily and some days 2. Otherwise, I am 99% sure I will accidentally mix up pills in the future, not on purpose but by accident , so many look alike or the pharmacy insurance switches manufacturers, making the same dose of a drug look vastly different from the bottle I’d just finished. And any psychiatrist should know that no patient, bipolar or otherwise, is going to peer at each pill with a magnifying glass to determine they put the right med in the right box. And a little round white pill split in half (which I have to do with my round white pills), just forget telling them apart at all, especially messy split pills like hydroxyzine.

Sorry for ranting, I also pulled some abdjuctor muscle in my thigh, making I hard to walk, even woke up from the pain last night. The deep pain is in my hip and OMG can radiate all over the quad and upper thigh including the groin. Yeah. That is definitely not fun and puts quite the damper on your sex life. I am pretty grouchy about it.

I didn’t get to proofread this, so I apologize for the typos.

[~Christina]

Well I finally got some sleep ! I’m still wheezing a bit but at least the flare up is going back to hell where it belongs, well, until next time.

Bipolar wise I’m just not doing well, I knew the steroids were going to cause me trouble, they always do.

I’m really quite, stuck in my head. Trying to juggle the self loathing, anger, rage-y and crying bit. Intrusive thoughts , the whole mess. Sucks man. So white knuckling it.

I have a follow up with GP on Thursday for Asthma and finally see my T next Wednesday!

Hugs everyone !

[yellow_fleurs]

Christina that sounds dreadful, I'm sorry. Are you getting any sleep at all?

[yellow_fleurs]

Blueberrybook I hope your pdoc will listen. It's important for them to know how you feel about it. Are you feeling better since this weekend?

[Sunflower123]

Originally Posted by ~Christina

Well I finally got some sleep ! I’m still wheezing a bit but at least the flare up is going back to hell where it belongs, well, until next time.

Bipolar wise I’m just not doing well, I knew the steroids were going to cause me trouble, they always do.

I’m really quite, stuck in my head. Trying to juggle the self loathing, anger, rage-y and crying bit. Intrusive thoughts , the whole mess. Sucks man. So white knuckling it.

I have a follow up with GP on Thursday for Asthma and finally see my T next Wednesday!

Hugs everyone !

Sending big hugs and supportive vibes.

[~Christina]

Originally Posted by yellow_fleurs

Christina that sounds dreadful, I'm sorry. Are you getting any sleep at all?

Yes Thanks ! finally last night , about 6 hours , broken a lot but I was so grateful.

[wildflowerchild25]

Today was my first day at work! Still training, no kids until Thursday. But I got my class list and my schedule. I have prep first period which is awesome, I’ll be able to bring breakfast and eat it without hassle, plus have time to get all my materials together for the day. I’m a little dismayed that there are no laptops for the kids though. Apparently they can’t be trusted to use the internet properly. This is going to make most of my past lesson plans hard to use again. But I am a professional and I will overcome! The other English teacher and I are going to co plan.

My stomach pain is back full force. It’s very uncomfortable. I’ve been dragging my feet about going to a GI as the last one I saw dismissed me because I was overweight, or as he put it “morbidly obese”. He basically said it’s my fault I’m fat (after I tried to explain that meds made me gain weight) and that all my problems would go away if I lost weight. I’m afraid of getting the same reaction from a new dr. Plus I don’t get back into town now until 4:30 and most places close at 5. Plus I do t have insurance until nov 1, and then in January it’s changing again for everyone in the company so it’ll be different anyway. I’m hoping l’ll be able to hold on until the new year.

Tomorrow I get more time to set up my classroom. I have a bunch of posters I ordered. It’s a small classroom but I’m hoping to make it look nice.

[Wild Coyote]

Originally Posted by wildflowerchild25

Today was my first day at work! Still training, no kids until Thursday. But I got my class list and my schedule. I have prep first period which is awesome, I’ll be able to bring breakfast and eat it without hassle, plus have time to get all my materials together for the day. I’m a little dismayed that there are no laptops for the kids though. Apparently they can’t be trusted to use the internet properly. This is going to make most of my past lesson plans hard to use again. But I am a professional and I will overcome! The other English teacher and I are going to co plan.

My stomach pain is back full force. It’s very uncomfortable. I’ve been dragging my feet about going to a GI as the last one I saw dismissed me because I was overweight, or as he put it “morbidly obese”. He basically said it’s my fault I’m fat (after I tried to explain that meds made me gain weight) and that all my problems would go away if I lost weight. I’m afraid of getting the same reaction from a new dr. Plus I don’t get back into town now until 4:30 and most places close at 5. Plus I do t have insurance until nov 1, and then in January it’s changing again for everyone in the company so it’ll be different anyway. I’m hoping l’ll be able to hold on until the new year.

Tomorrow I get more time to set up my classroom. I have a bunch of posters I ordered. It’s a small classroom but I’m hoping to make it look nice.

You sound excited for thee new school year!

I am very sorry for how you have been treated by doctors around weight. While weight is an important factor in health, it is not the only factor, nor is it the cause of all other conditions!

I hate to write this (yet I think I'll write it anyway), I think you will likely fair better if you can find a female GI. Some male doctors are a bit jerky; not all, but some. Admittedly, I have known a couple of jerky female doctors, but that is a very small percentage of the very many doctors i have seen. Just my two cents.

I do hope your GI system will heal soon.

[Wild Coyote]

Originally Posted by Blueberrybook

My weekend was pretty screwed up after probably spending most of the week taking double the dose of Abilify I’d been prescribed. I guess my symptoms worried H; he called my 2 sisters. They kept calling all day long to check on me. I still don’t know if feeding my cats honey was sleepwalking or hallucination. H said I talked lucidly to him and seemed awake, and you do hear stories of people driving while sleepwalking and such. Yelling at H’s jigsaw thinking my daughter and youngest niece were playing some sly form of hide-n-seek and did not occur around sleep. I remember nothing of the honey incident and nearly all of the hide-seek incident. Small things confused me all weekend.

I see my pdoc on Thursday. Both my sisters and H say I should bring all my meds with me, dump them on the pdoc’s desk and say, “Tell me how I’m supposed to manage this?” I have the Protonix which the GI seems convinced I need. I’d do anything to never have to have ulcer surgery again. So Protonix is going nowhere.

Then, I have many, many scripts from the pdoc , to be fair, most of which he inherited when he took over my treatment. The pdoc I had before didn’t like prescribing so much, but she was slow to add or take away certain meds over the 10 years I saw her. It was her opinion that being on SSRIs and in stuck in the cogs of a very large and not great county mental health care team definitely didn’t help me as they prescribed SSRIs blindly, Trazodone was practically thrown at you with one or two or 3 SSRIs, tons of benzos, xanax, sometimes they’d spice it up and add a little Geodon or Risperdal to the mix, along with Ativan too. It’s a wonder I’m still here after all that.

Unfortunately , I have no idea how this pdoc will take it and I am nervous to do it too. I’ve not generally been a rebellious patient except when I had a manic episode collide with a psych appointment or when I was in the psych hospital. I really need some medication management, not more pills to make it harder to manage. And while I have been on Wellbutrin for years, I am not sure it’s even helping me, and for reasons unknown, I feel like my IQ goes down 10 points every time I take it. I had the same problem with it on fewer pills and again on a higher dosage (maybe 300 mg) and I have been down crying a lot lately. God knows I can’t deal with the Klonopin first though now I am able to take 3 pills daily and some days 2. Otherwise, I am 99% sure I will accidentally mix up pills in the future, not on purpose but by accident , so many look alike or the pharmacy insurance switches manufacturers, making the same dose of a drug look vastly different from the bottle I’d just finished. And any psychiatrist should know that no patient, bipolar or otherwise, is going to peer at each pill with a magnifying glass to determine they put the right med in the right box. And a little round white pill split in half (which I have to do with my round white pills), just forget telling them apart at all, especially messy split pills like hydroxyzine.

Sorry for ranting, I also pulled some abdjuctor muscle in my thigh, making I hard to walk, even woke up from the pain last night. The deep pain is in my hip and OMG can radiate all over the quad and upper thigh including the groin. Yeah. That is definitely not fun and puts quite the damper on your sex life. I am pretty grouchy about it.

I didn’t get to proofread this, so I apologize for the typos.

Hi! YES! YES! YES!

Please do ask for a med review. It never hurts anything to do so.

To be perfectly honest, I have been very concerned about the number of meds you have shared you were taking, ever sice your arrival here at PC.

I have expressed my concern repeatedly, as have other concerned members.

I feel much more hopeful for you and for your life when you write about getting a thorough med check and/or overhauling your meds.

I have many different conditions, all needing treatment and meds. It gets to be far too much to have every specialist prescribing their favorite cocktails. Nothing against the docs, per se, yet they need to consider the potential drug interac tions of the meds they prescribe with those meds another specialist prescribes. On top of this, nobody, and I mean nobody, knows what will happen when several drugs are prescribed at the same time.

This is when I had to become very proactively involved. I would not take a med until I had run it through a drug "interactions/contraindications" program AND my pharmacist had done the same. (Believe it or not, we sometimes came up with differing info.) My doctors, no matter how careful, except for one who is a genius, have had difficulty in realizing some of the interactions/contraindications. Who will this hurt? Me.

I dropped a lot of meds first. I had to do so, as there was absolutely no way I could have a healthy and a sane life otherwise.

Who might be hurt from the polypharmacy you have been trying to live with? You and your family, of course.

While I totally understand you never want to have to have a GI surgery again, I do truly believe you can work at cutting down on the many other meds and dosages thereof. (I am having deja vu because I recall having written this before to you, out of sincere concern.)

There are ways to bring this to your doc's attention. If you feel like bringing your med bottles in, so be it! Hallelujah! You are fighting for your life, in more ways than one!

You are fighting to stay alive, battling more than one potentially life-threatening issue. You are trying to be Present for your daughter, your husband, your sisters and yourself, not necessarily in that order. You want to be more Present in life than you can be on so many meds!

It is impossible to "get back" these very important years with your daughter.
She needs your Presence more than anything. I give you a lot of credit for trying. Yet, these types and number of meds have to, just have to, have you snowed.

I say, take the bottles in and make an impact upon the doctor as to what all of the prescribing looks like from your point of view, every single day, likely 3-4 times a day! Then, tell him/her just what it feels like to you.

You, my dear, have absolutely nothing to lose by getting upset about the extreme polypharmacy and by being very adamant about cutting back on some of these meds.

You have nothing to lose. You might just gain back quite a bit of functioning you have not enjoyed for quite some time?

My apologies to you if you feel my "rant" is way off. Please do know that I have truly been very concerned about you and about your med situation from day one. I have shared this with you before and I am willing to go out on a limb again, out of concern for you.

Please do. Please do demand more from your doctor(s) before you suffer further.

My Love and My Prayers for you and for your family~

Originally Posted by Blueberrybook

My weekend was pretty screwed up after probably spending most of the week taking double the dose of Abilify I’d been prescribed. I guess my symptoms worried H; he called my 2 sisters. They kept calling all day long to check on me. I still don’t know if feeding my cats honey was sleepwalking or hallucination. H said I talked lucidly to him and seemed awake, and you do hear stories of people driving while sleepwalking and such. Yelling at H’s jigsaw thinking my daughter and youngest niece were playing some sly form of hide-n-seek and did not occur around sleep. I remember nothing of the honey incident and nearly all of the hide-seek incident. Small things confused me all weekend.

I see my pdoc on Thursday. Both my sisters and H say I should bring all my meds with me, dump them on the pdoc’s desk and say, “Tell me how I’m supposed to manage this?” I have the Protonix which the GI seems convinced I need. I’d do anything to never have to have ulcer surgery again. So Protonix is going nowhere.

Then, I have many, many scripts from the pdoc , to be fair, most of which he inherited when he took over my treatment. The pdoc I had before didn’t like prescribing so much, but she was slow to add or take away certain meds over the 10 years I saw her. It was her opinion that being on SSRIs and in stuck in the cogs of a very large and not great county mental health care team definitely didn’t help me as they prescribed SSRIs blindly, Trazodone was practically thrown at you with one or two or 3 SSRIs, tons of benzos, xanax, sometimes they’d spice it up and add a little Geodon or Risperdal to the mix, along with Ativan too. It’s a wonder I’m still here after all that.

Unfortunately , I have no idea how this pdoc will take it and I am nervous to do it too. I’ve not generally been a rebellious patient except when I had a manic episode collide with a psych appointment or when I was in the psych hospital. I really need some medication management, not more pills to make it harder to manage. And while I have been on Wellbutrin for years, I am not sure it’s even helping me, and for reasons unknown, I feel like my IQ goes down 10 points every time I take it. I had the same problem with it on fewer pills and again on a higher dosage (maybe 300 mg) and I have been down crying a lot lately. God knows I can’t deal with the Klonopin first though now I am able to take 3 pills daily and some days 2. Otherwise, I am 99% sure I will accidentally mix up pills in the future, not on purpose but by accident , so many look alike or the pharmacy insurance switches manufacturers, making the same dose of a drug look vastly different from the bottle I’d just finished. And any psychiatrist should know that no patient, bipolar or otherwise, is going to peer at each pill with a magnifying glass to determine they put the right med in the right box. And a little round white pill split in half (which I have to do with my round white pills), just forget telling them apart at all, especially messy split pills like hydroxyzine.

Sorry for ranting, I also pulled some abdjuctor muscle in my thigh, making I hard to walk, even woke up from the pain last night. The deep pain is in my hip and OMG can radiate all over the quad and upper thigh including the groin. Yeah. That is definitely not fun and puts quite the damper on your sex life. I am pretty grouchy about it.

I didn’t get to proofread this, so I apologize for the typos.

Blueberrybook, I totally agree with everything Wild Coyote wrote, and also think your idea of bringing in all of your medication bottles for your doctor to see could indeed be an effective strategy at getting a point across. You may want to first outline a couple of points to go with it. My suggestion is to be very assertive, but not angry. You know the difference.

I can relate to your frustrations. I was once on a much bigger medication cocktail than I'm on now. Unfortunately, it took major side effects to finally inspire my doctor to take me off some. It shouldn't have to get to that point. I can say that when I was slowly taken off the first in that behemoth cocktail, I did have to have another medication's dose increased, but not extremely. It still felt good to cut one out. Then when I was slowly taken off Lithium, my quality of life only improved, and no medication increases or substitutions were necessary. Then I had to go off yet another because of severe side effects. That weaning off process was much more difficult. The dose of a remaining did go up quite a bit, but in the end, I was free of three medications I used to take. Many side effects eased or disappeared. I am happy the chopping down happened.

I can't speak for you, but for me being on such an extremely big cocktail almost became psychologically distressing. That's not good! Nowadays I don't have that feeling. I'm more at peace with my smaller, yet still big, cocktail.

Originally Posted by ~Christina

Well I finally got some sleep ! I’m still wheezing a bit but at least the flare up is going back to hell where it belongs, well, until next time.

Bipolar wise I’m just not doing well, I knew the steroids were going to cause me trouble, they always do.

I’m really quite, stuck in my head. Trying to juggle the self loathing, anger, rage-y and crying bit. Intrusive thoughts , the whole mess. Sucks man. So white knuckling it.

I have a follow up with GP on Thursday for Asthma and finally see my T next Wednesday!

Hugs everyone !

Hugs to you, my PC friend! I hope that you continue to feel better quickly rather than slowly, so you can ease off or go off that steroid. My husband occasionally has to take prednisone and that really beats him up a lot. I don't know what steroid you take, but imagine some effects are similar.

Originally Posted by Wild Coyote

I had posted this in the "physical check-in thread. I don't usually post the same post in different threads. Today, this sums up my day very well:

It has been quite a day! I have been all over the map. I was extremely ill at 4 am; however, I did recover enough to spend quality time with company.

Here is what I have learned today: There is a "body therapy" called "Block Therapy." As I understand this, it is used to help people with painful conditions, especially those conditions that have a "myofascial"component. I had a hands-on lesson in Block Therapy today by one of the very few authorized instructors in the U.S.! Lucky me! It's fascinating and I am going to look into it further.

I mention this here because this is the physical check-in thread, this is a very physical approach/method, and I wonder if this approach might be helpful to anyone else?

Welcome to Block Therapy > Block Therapy

My day had started off all wrong (at 4am) and I could have called off meeting with company today; instead I was given quite a gift for just showing up!
Many times, I find, I reap benefits if I make sure I just "show up," as opposed to isolating, feeling overwhelmed, etc.

Love to All!

Thank you for sharing about this interesting type of therapy, Wild Coyote! I will perhaps share it with my husband, who has pain issues all of the time.

Originally Posted by yellow_fleurs

I was dragging today. Got to work later than I had wanted to, just couldn't make myself get up. Felt zoned out and tired today, and just apathetic. I also felt irritable. I always get worried people can tell that I am "off" and I don't want people to think I'm just really weird or something. I mean, I guess maybe I am kind of, but yeah. It just makes me want to be really avoidant. Considering all the healthy changes I have tried in my life, I am realizing that this is going to be hard to keep my brain stable. I think I am too scared to try anything that will mess with my hormones, but I could always talk to my psychiatrist again. We'll see, I am not sure the grass would be greener if I tried medication, I mean I am functioning for the most part and don't have to deal with side effects right now. I am not exercising that much yet, if I can increase that maybe that will help my mental health. I think I will try that first for awhile.

Hope everyone is doing well, and if today was not good that tomorrow is better. Sending compassion to all.

It sounds to me that you have an open-mind about treatment options. I hope the first step at wellness is all you need. Hoping you feel better soon!

[Jedi67]

slept ok last night. treating myself to a "me" day and going to rest and watch movies. mood is ok. not too elevated or too down. sort of in the middle. sort of meh. not cooking dinner tonight, just not up to grilling. need to whip something else up. well, that's about it. not much to report today. kind of a quiet morning. watching the news. hope everyone is well. hugs.

Originally Posted by Pookyl

Off to see my pdoc this morning. Hoping to start cutting back on my Seroquel XR from the 400 mg down to 300mg. Don’t mind the 12.5mg Seroquel IR that I take every morning. But I suspect she won’t touch anything until my other doctor decides by how much I need to reduce my Thyroxine.

I hope you get a reduction in your Seroquel XR soon. So you know, my psychiatrist rarely ever reduces by a full 100 mg or more. He usually starts any Seroquel XR reductions by just 50 mg, to start. I'm only sharing this in case your doctor only reduces by 50 mg. The only major jumps in my Seroquel XR dose are usually upwards, and only if I'm quite manic.

That would be great if you could have your Thyroxine reduced. I don't think I ever will unless I go off of Tegretol XR, which may affect my Levothyroxine's efficacy.