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BipolaRNurse · 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xraydiva09

Hi there! Yea I know what you mean about enjoying the good days...sometimes they seem so few and far between....I always wonder what it would feel like to feel, well, that word they call "normal"....Im glad that your Lamictal gives you that relief, and from what I hear, if you titrate up slow enough, hopefully you can avoid the rash....guess I just got lucky lol.....I dont go back to my PDoc for another month, and Im just so frustrated...Im doing so so, but before I got this wonderful disorder, I was never so so....I was bubbly and fun and full of life....that is what I am hoping to get back....I dont want to just settle, and like I said before, something just isnt right....and I noticed something else too....besides being freakishly tired....did I mention freakishly tired lol.....I crave sugar like its going out of style.....I think about it, I dream about it, I want to eat it for all 3 meals a day.....not normal lol.....but which med is the culprit? Or is it something else? Heck, who knows.....ok once again, rattling on about my problems.....
So what type of nurse are you? Ya, I'm a nosy one lol...its always nice to know something about the person you are talking to. Do you have children, pets, etc??? I hope things are good for you today and that you are feeling well! Thanks for writing back!

I'm a wife and mother of four grown children, a grandmother to four boys, and I'm owned by three cats and a Pug mix dog, LOL.

At present, I am the Director of Health Services for a large Assisted Living community---hands down, the best job I've ever had, and I'll move heaven and earth and do whatever I have to in order to keep it.

But I've worked all sorts of nursing positions, because I can't seem to stick with any job longer than 2 1/2 years.....this is the very first place I've been able to see myself staying until I retire. That's probably a bit optimistic. Still, I love it where I am and have the best possible set-up, including a boss who ROCKS!

I've worked Medical/Surgical (which is hell on earth), nursing homes, critical care, OB, and management over a 15-year career. Sometimes I wonder if I became a nurse because I'm bipolar, or if I'm bipolar because I'm a nurse! It's an extremely stressful job, no matter what kind of nursing you do......sometimes all you do is catch crap all freaking day (literally AND figuratively speaking), and at other times you touch a life, and it changes you forever.

About the cravings: I think sugar/carbohydrate cravings and weight gain are very common with most psych meds, but to be sure, in your place I'd have my blood sugar tested to make sure you're not developing diabetes. It happens to a lot of folks when they gain large amounts of weight, and it sneaks up on you---last year I was tired beyond belief, couldn't stay awake, felt awful, was hungry/thirsty all the time, etc. Well, being a nurse has never given me much insight into my OWN health issues, so I was astounded to find out that my fasting blood sugar was 241. (Normal is between 70-99.) I got it under control with oral meds, but now it's getting worse and I could easily wind up on insulin in another couple of years if I don't watch it.