My Support Forums - View Single Post - Bipolar check-in #71

*Beth* · Nov 23, 2022 at 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeyondtheRainbow

I wish you could see her or someone like her. She specializes in difficult cases so options like Emsam and clozapine are available and in my case she's not afraid to combine the two strong meds. She's been my pdoc for 19 years so I can barely remember fighting with previous ones although I did.

I'm sorry it's so hard. I'm glad med dude at least raised your topamax dose.

Are you anywhere near a big teaching hospital? I have been seeing my pdoc since she was in private practice before she moved to the big hospital but it's more likely to find doctors like her at teaching hospitals. That's why I drive so far to see her (that and it's so rural here that there aren't any options, much less someone experienced in difficult cases).

What an excellent situation, Rainbow. I'm happy for you that you have it.

Yes, I live about 30 miles from an enormous teaching hospital. I had psychiatric care there on and off (depending upon my insurance/ability to pay out of pocket) between 1987 and 2015. In 2015 they stopped taking my insurance and hiked their hourly rate from $80 to $120 out of pocket. By now the cost must be much higher. I just don't have it monthly and I'd really need it more often than that, plus the gas to get there. It's really too bad, because the place itself is there. The only somewhat down-side of the teaching hospital was that I had a new pdoc every June because of rotation. That actually wasn't too bad, though, because they were all friendly. There was one I was really sorry to lose, but for some reason the rest were easy to work with, too. The entire system there ran smoothly. They did seem to "think outside the box," too.