Dear friends at the Forum,

I've been going over the mood charts I've kept since sometime in the 1990s. In about 1996, I'd finally found a good medical team and started medication. In 1999, the chart has the words that say that for 5 months, I was stable, and found no need to keep the chart during that period.

I was on Tegretol, at that time. In fact, I was on Tegretol for several years. Then I was dx'd with osteoporosis, so quit the Tegretol. It's been mostly mild ups and downs since. (The recent extremely extreme episode was caused by mismanagement of my medication. I don't blame the providers. I blame the public mental health system in my state, which piles on such huge case loads that the providers are actually being "set up" to do what amounts to malpractice. I've been worse for the last week, than I ever had been in my entire life - and I've had mood swings since I was 3 or 4 years old. I know how publicly funded institutions can be towards their employees. I sorrow for these good men and women who are doing the best they can, in a field they love and thought they wanted to be their life's work.

So anyway, I'm starting with a new,private care psychiatrist today. I'm going to talk with her about the Tegretol issue. If she thinks it's a good idea, I'll get back on that medication, visit a Medical Dietitian, and an osteoporosis specialist to see what I need to do to protect my bones. (Medical Dieticians are not nutritionists. They are medical professionals who know med interactions, etc etc and can provide a comfortable dietary regime. The time I saw one b/c I was gaining weight, she asked me what foods I like to eat? Then we went over my list and she provided tasty alternatives, according to my own preferences.

[Wild Coyote]

I hope this works out well for you!


WC

[Sunflower123]

I hope tegretol works again for you. There are several medications out now that help prevent bone loss. One that my mom takes has even helped her add bone mass and she's 82. Good luck.