......I'm on the right combination of meds. I feel so normal---just like an everyday person. There's no hypo/mania, no depression, no anxiety......I simply feel marvelously, splendidly NORMAL.

It got a little scary at my pdoc appointment yesterday, though, because if I can't get my weight and blood sugars down I'm going to have to change meds again. It's all due to new state requirements that patients on second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) be given education on and monitored for diabetes, metabolic syndrome, high blood fats etc.

Well, hell---I've already got 'em all, and we both thought the "education" piece was absurd since we're both licensed healthcare professionals and this stuff is written for a 7th-grade literacy level. But we had to do what we had to do, the bottom line being I have to keep working at weight and blood-sugar management if I don't want to be switched over to Geodon. And I don't want to change meds, not when I've finally gotten to where I need and want to be.

I've lost 7 pounds in two weeks by virtue of changing part of my diet to include more fruits instead of sweets and eat fewer simple carbohydrates. It's like a $5 discount on a Lexus, but I had to start somewhere. Two weeks ago I reached a weight that was higher than I'd ever been, and I went "oh HELL no" and threw the process into reverse.

Now I've got to get the exercise component in there somewhere........dunno how I'm going to do it because I HATE formal exercise with a pink and purple passion. But the fact that I'm even considering it shows how very far I've come in these past six months, and I'll do what I have to in order to maintain it. I don't even feel bipolar anymore.....of course, I know that it's because of the meds and I've promised myself that I won't stop taking them, even if I go for years without another mood episode.

Yes, this is what life can be like with controlled BP, and I'm loving it I know better than to think I'm cured, but this remission couldn't have come at a better time. Thank You, Lord!!