Got my date to go IP/ Wellbutrin and heart palpitations

Sorry this is all in one post, but I wanted to give an update and there are multiple subjects for this.

About me going IP: I kept hoping that my pdoc would change his mind and that I wouldn't have to go IP. I saw him today and he has not.

Well... I don't "have" to go, but he really wants me to, so I feel like if I want to do my part for the team effort, I should go. He wouldn't want me there unless he thought it would help him to help me. Beds are scarce and he has to juggle to get me in there, so I know it's important to him.

What I wasn't happy with was that initially he said he wanted me in there for 10-14 days and to start my next course of ECT IP. So I thought I'd do that and then finish the last few appointments OP.

Today, he told me he might want me to stay for 3 weeks!!!!! That is waaaaay too long... I do not want to do that :-(

Although I'm not as bad as I was a couple of weeks ago (I was probably not all that safe for a few days there), I'm still about -7.5 our of -10. He says he wants me in there because I'm not getting better.

There have been threads discussing bipolar and some people expressing doubt about their diagnosis. I'm pretty classic I think but today, in desperation I suggested that maybe I have BPD and MDD, and that I'm not bipolar after all.

The logic was that I could cure BPD with therapy, and have many more anti-depressants to choose from to treat the depression. I'm not excited about the meds I've been taking, and don't want to get fat again from increased Seroquel. I'm also very sensitive to drugs and get random uncommon and rare side effects so my choices get narrower and narrower.

He said no. He was very definite. He doesn't see any BPD traits in me.

I told him that my weight loss that had started from the WB abruptly ceased and I started to gain as soon as my Seroquel does was increased. Even when I was only eating about 900 calories a day because of poor appetite from the WB, I started to creep back up on the scale. Then the insatiable hunger came back and I feel like I've been doing nothing else but eat for the past few days.

He was emphatic not to worry about the weight. He said that sometimes weight gain is a sign that the patient is responding to the meds and that I have to worry about stability first, then worry about weight. He repeated the whole not worrying about weight thing a few times and was very definite about it. But he backed my Seroquel back to where it was before the increase a couple of weeks ago, and I'm happy about that. I hadn't felt any differently from it anyway.

Or maybe I did, since I was starting to feel a little mixed probably from the increase in WB. But we backed that off too once I had two nights in a row where I couldn't stay asleep, and clumps of hair were falling out, and I started getting lots of heart palpitations, some very painful.

After my WB increase, I had a night in emerg after I woke up with unbearably painful palpitations/tachycardia. It woke me up out of a sedated sleep (Seroquel and Zopiclone), and when I got up and was trying to get dressed to go to the hospital, I was blacking out. I was very scared and considered calling an ambulance.

They ran every test and were very thorough and my heart is fine. Nothing wrong with it. They told me that it must have been heartburn. Odd, to have heartburn that has your heart thumping out of your chest at almost 200 BPM, severe pain that wakes you up, and blacking out :-)

What they didn't ask, and what became clear to me the next day when the palpitations started again (in my pdoc's office-he said I was very tachy, and to go to my GP for follow up) was that I had recently started a new med. And two of the rare or less common side effects are tachycardia and palpitations. I dropped back my dose after not sleeping for two nights and haven't had an issue with my heart since.

Anyway, that's my update. My WB had increased but I cut it back and my pdoc agreed it was the right thing, and my Seroquel had increased at the same time, but we put it back today.

Next, hospital, groups, ECT and who knows what else? Oh well, I'm very happy to have a doctor who is so determined to help me. He is a lovely man and I'm very lucky to have him.

You may have put this elsewhere but I will ask: I will look at your profile page.

What meds are you on now? What have you tried?

I have heard a small percentage of people have treatment resistive depression. Does this sound like you?

Valentina I'm on a very low dose of Seroquel (100mg) and Wellbutrin. (150 mg). I also take 3.25 mg if Zopiclone for sleep.

Before my ECT I was on 450 mg of lithium (600 give me a significant tremor) and 175 mg Lamotrigine.

I used to take Effexor and Valproic Acid but got pancreatitis. Apparently that rules out a lot of drugs because many related ones can cause it and it's life threatening.

300 mg of WB gave me the heart thing so I couldn't increase in that.

So it's not that I've tried so many so much as a number are ruled out to begin with because of the pancreatitis....



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The whole hunger thing is such an annoying side effect of seroquel. I'm on a low dose too (200mg) and all I did yesterday was pace around and moan about how hungry I was. When I'm not on it I don't care about food at all! I also step on the scale numerous times in one day and worry and lament about how much I weigh. Just annoying, but the shyt helps my anxiety and uplifts my mood and I don't want to try anything new and go on the med merry go round because geodon ended up as a disaster and gave me heart problems similar feeling I think to your wellbutrin situation.

I hope IP will be beneficial. Staying that long sucks yes, but hopefully you'll leave feeling much better.

I don't even bother arguing anymore about my diagnosis. It never accomplishes anything and I can't even offer an alternative diagnosis (I know for a fact that I don't have bpd). So I can't do much about it.

Omg. 100-200mg Seroquel is a low dose? 100 mg made me sleep 23 hours a day for a week. I couldn't do it any more, never mind the throbbing tension headache that was killing me.

Welbutrin alone fed into my hypomanic state for 2 years....that's how I got started on stabilizers. And all I thought we had was depression.

You know, I know it's horrible to do 3 weeks of IP because 2 weeks was hard enough here, but if it meant a chance of the bipolar symptoms to settle down... I'd be like you and try to throw the BPD thing out there, trying to find a way out. I guess it would be better to go voluntarily then made to go. Who knows, maybe you'll improve quicker and maybe released early?

Yes, you are so lucky to have a pdoc that has your best interest in mind and won't let you con him. I can only wish.

The best to you.

Are you on wellbutrin SR or XL? When I was on 150mg XL I could not go to sleep and was somewhat irritable at times. But my doc switched me to 200mgSR and it was tolerable, and I was able to fall asleep at night.

I hope the IP helps. I've been twice for two weeks and once for three days. Once I was out I was better.

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