Currently Undiagnosed, Pdoc Appt in 2 days. What can I expect?

Thanks for your curiosity, bioChE

At the risk of beginning to be repetetive, please see my last few posts within the last half hour to get an idea how it went. The TL;DR of it was, pretty damn well! I connected with my pdoc right away and I felt she genuinely listened and considered my "manifest" and story, and she agreed with my initial conclusions.

Thanks again for your support!

At the advice of others in this thread, I decided to not take my wife for my initial visit, which wasn't a bad thing. I do intend on involving my wife as time goes on though, as I really rely on her support.

Haha! Well, oddly enough, you were right about the knitting needles but she insisted on going in through the ears. It wasn't too bad, a bit of ringing in the ears now, but I feel much better.

Hi there UpDownAround. Interestingly enough (or not? I suppose our experiences are similar in what I'm about to say), you nailed it with being able to recognize our hypomania. I've only ever felt "truly manic" when my life was in danger through reckless, adrenaline based, driving. Beyond that, you'd be right in that I only ever felt "better" after being depressed, which doesn't happen too much anymore. I've all but given up on trying out my new impossible ideas after recognizing for some time now that for each new impossible idea I always burn out, fail, and feel miserable afterward (and around I went for a long time, even before I thought I had a problem over a year and a half ago).

Speaking of Lamotrigine, my pdoc started me off at 25 mg. I haven't looked it up yet (I probably should), but can you tell me if this is a low or high starting dose? What dose would be considered "WOAH DUDE, that's really high!"? Thanks for your thoughts on that

Your Lamictal dose is small to start with. They have to titrate up slowly due to the risk of Stevens-Johnson syndrome (I'm sure your pdoc explained this). By contrast, I'm on the "whoa dude, that's really high" dose and am basically maxed out at 400 mg.

Glad you went in and got some answers. FWIW, I think your pdoc is right on with the diagnosis. It may change as time goes by and symptoms wax and wane; I started out with bipolar NOS and ended up being diagnosed bipolar 1 during a severe depressive episode, which is not usually when a person's BP dx gets "upgraded". I think my IP pdoc must have gone through my records and seen evidence that my manias met the criteria for BP 1. But even if he pulled that diagnosis out of his arse, three more mental health care providers did study my history and re-diagnosed me with it three more times, so I guess I'd better start believing it. LOL

Please do keep us informed of your progress. There's a pretty steep learning curve with this illness, so read everything you can about it. Participate in studies if you can and you're sure everything is above board. And of course, talk to us anytime---we've all been there, done that, and we continue to fight this beast every day. Hugs.

I am on 100mg. that is what the titration stops at and they generally leave you at that dosage a while and see how it's going after a few weeks at that level. That was enough for me, but I am a psych med lightweight; all my med dosages are on the low side. Actually it isn't just psych meds; low dose pain pills give me a pretty serious buzz and I get jacked up on an average dose of stimulants.

25mg Lamictal is the normal starting dose. I’m on 300mg ER.

Glad your appointment went well and you are now diagnosed and being treated for it. I hope your med transition goes smoothly.

FWIW, there's a wonderful website run by Dr. James Phelps, one of the leading pdocs in the field of BP2:

Psycheducation.org

It's full of useful information that helped un-scare the cr*p out of me after my initial dx.

Good Luck

Hmm, should I be concerned if my pdoc didn't explain anything about my meds? In fact, I think all she said was "this is to help you sleep, and this is to help with the manias and depression". To be fair, I did push my 1 hour appointment into 2 hours and she missed lunch, so I was being pushed out the door.

Thank you, I am glad too. Thanks for the second opinion on my diagnosis. I did have it in my mind that I'd be classified bipolar I with the intense (couple of) (short) manias, but her diagnosis makes sense to me. I spend a lot of my time depressed these days with a few spurts of increase goal oriented activities and a lot of irritability. I'm just glad that I've not had to legitimately go IP. I have this fear about losing my freedom, even for 72 hours. (Being imprisoned in your own mind certainly doesn't help with that, but hey, at least it's my own mind and not someone else's :P ).

I certainly will! Thank you for your support. I feel like I've read a whole lot about bipolar disorder already, but I also know that I've only scratched the surface. I think BD is as diverse as people themselves. I guess all I really know about it is my own experiences. Thank you for taking the time to level with me on mine

Be well, and thanks!

I think your pdoc will be very happy to give you tons of information about your meds to the degree that you ask informed questions about them. Remember, some people just don't want much info and prefer a simple explanation, and that may be your pdoc's general assumption.

I myself am very mistrustful of any med, so I try to go in armed with information about the meds that are typically prescribed, what their alternatives are, what I should expect for a typical dosage for someone in my condition, etc. It puts me in the position where I can partner with my pdoc, which is how I want it to be. The stuff is going into my body, not hers, so she has to convince me first, and it isn't fair to ask her to do that when I'm uninformed. I don't have to take a med just because she says so, but I will want to try it if she and I can agree that it might be a good idea.

And if it helps any, among the meds I use are also lamotrigine and risperidone. They're not for everyone, but they do me just fine.

Good Luck