Bipolar Check-in #74

Beth, please PM me. I've been MIA lately and want to update you. I tried PMing you but the system said you aren't accepting private messages right now.

Thanks @Soupe du jour

I slept almost 10 hours last night. I got up once for about 30 minutes which is great.

So that's 2 good nights of sleep. Hopefully it's a trend.

No gym today but I'll work out a little at home later.

My endocrinologist wants me to start metformin. I’m
Still in prediabetes but have not gained any weight in last 6 months.

I picked up my latuda and they switched me to generic. I’ve been stable on this for years. I know the generic version has the same active ingredient but…, just, what if it unstablizes me? I’m nervous 😬

That's always the thing I worry about from being on a brand name med. Just because the drug is the bio-equivalent of the same active ingredient does NOT equal same drug. It can vary up to like 60%, plus fillers and dyes used can change absorption rates for you. Your concern is very valid but, we won't know until we know sadly.

I hope your medicine works out for you. I loved Latuda. It was a miracle drug for me but made me feel awful for about 4 hours after taking it, but then I felt GREAT. I did all I could to offset that but just couldn't handle it. I think it worked a lot better than my Vraylar works now to be honest.

Keep us updated. If you notice signs of instability, I would contact your doctor ASAP and get some advice.

I see my pdoc Tuesday. I plan to be proactive and ask if I get unstable he can call the pharmacy and request brand only. Decades ago I had a doctor do that for my thyroid med. back then I was clueless but she was an excellent dr who told me that thyroid meds need to be stable and pharmacies tended to fill thyroid meds from various generics from one month to another so it was always changing. That was the first I heard of that.

My poor pdoc is in for an earful. Since I last saw him, my mum died, my housing is up in the air, my cat went blind. On the plus side things have gotten better since the time change, and I joined the senior center.

I took an hour nap around 12:30 and then I ate some pretzel bites for dinner. My stomach pain came back and I had some diarrhea. I must just have some bug.

Thank you. Your response and everyone's hugs do help. I also have a mutual friend with her so I've been talking to her and will go with her to our friend's celebration of life.

My father was taken to the hospital last night. He has multiple health emergencies. They are even doing tests to determine if he has pancreatic cancer like my brother, as they discovered a mass on that organ. Certainly brings up questions about the house they lived in. My mother died from cancer of a similar related organ. It would be more a miracle if my dad recovered enough to return to the facility he lives in. We are preparing ourselves for that. Meanwhile, my brother is in the same hospital.

I don't know what to say in this situation. You and your husband have all the "things" around the moving to think about and now this about your father at the top. Feel sorry for you all!

Soupe!



Words are inadequate

@Soupe du jour:

So sorry to hear of your dad and brother. And you've got the demand of moving into your new house. How stressful this must all be! I'll keep you in my thoughts.

Well I’m attracted the other side in my new house and I couldn’t be more pleased. I am just so relieved and glad to be here.

I can not rate the moving company highly enough. Best movers I’ve ever had / and I have moved a lot. These guys didn’t stop. Not even for one second to catch their breath. They arrived at our old place at 9:00 and left our new place at 7:00pm. Beds assembled. I was so tired but I still had to go out to get dinner. I collapsed in bed about 9:00pm.

I wanted to have a bath last night. I haven’t bathed in 6 years because my old place only had showers. But I knew I wouldn’t enjoy it so I’m going to savour the moment this morning.

My 4 year old son was an absolute champion. He was zooming around all over the place but overall so well behaved. He crashed into his bed at 8:00pm. He should sleep well this morning.

We’ve got our new lounge suite and outdoor patio arriving between 10:00-1:00 today. I can’t wait to have new furniture. Our old furniture was OLD.

All in all I’m just so happy to be here. Even though I have to make the 1 hour trip back to my old place this afternoon to scrub floors. You should see what behind the washing machine and underneath where the fridge used to be looks like. Omg so embarrassing!

I’m so sorry to see this. Thinking of you and praying for your family

Hello all! I’ve been on this forum sparingly over the past few months. There have been some things in my life that I needed to address and I’ve been super busy. Things are getting wrapped up.

I’ve completely stopped lithium and Vraylar now and remain stable.

I had a lovely visit with my daughter this past weekend. She can’t make it the weekend of my Gatlinburg Hilton travel package so I’ll take mom. She is excited about going. I’ll see my daughter again when we celebrate Easter.

I went to a women’s event Tuesday night. Good camaraderie, sharing and drumming. Making new friends and having fun makes for a good night.

I may need to have an operation in the region of my neck. Yikes! I found out years ago that I had pinched nerves in my wrist, elbow and neck - all on the right side. We addressed the immediate problem which was carpal tunnel in my wrist and have been waiting to see about the other. The nerve in my neck is acting up. Quite painful. I’m onboard with the operation as long as it cures this pain.

I hope everyone has a peaceful day. Much love

Doin' the happy dance today, everyone! I have no retirement save Social Security, since I was unemployed for the majority of my bipolar life. My wife has a pension and her Social Security coming, and she's eligible for both right now. But she is also severely depressed, and had not done what she needed to do in order to get those monies coming in. We started keeping our finances separate in the wake of an outrageous spending binge on my part in about 1995, and I've honored that, and not pried into her finances, since. But we couldn't pay this month's rent, let alone April's. Her credit cards were maxed. I finally got her to get the paperwork done for her pension, and we got that mailed out yesterday. She also called the local Social Security office, since she'd been waiting for two months without word on her SS. She got very prompt action!

She called them yesterday, and while I was running errands this morning, they called back. My wife will start getting her SS in May, and her "catch-up" money amounted to a very nice sum, enough to totally relieve the financial pressure on us. We're boomers, of course, and like so many in our generation, we made no provision and did no planning for our "golden years." We didn't have kids, and have very few immediate family still living.

Now I just have to watch myself and make sure I don't go hypomanic. We've gone through a lot of health issues (and so, of course, money) in the past five years. This is truly a red-letter day, and one of the best and happiest I remember in a long while. So I really wanted to share it with my MSF bipolar brethren and sistren. Life is good.

My sister and I went though more stuff. Finished mum’s suite and started on the spare room. We are just donating clothes and a lot of stuff. There’s only a small pile for the garage sale. Then we found a box of memorabilia mum had of dads. He had a ton of tie tacks and cuff links from his job, the eagles and the vets. Center. No idea what to do with those. We are taking things to the Easter dinner and letting everyone pick something out. We kids all got the silver dollars and the grand kids will get half dollars.

It goes slowly but my sister is easy to work with. Slowly we’ll get it done.

I feel lousy. No energy. Everyone raved about what a nice day it is out. I got out and it was windy. Wha?

@Crazy Hitch:

Glad to hear that you are in your new home and that the move went well. Congratulations!

@Sunflower123:

Glad to hear you got to see your daughter and have another visit planned.

@Mountainbard:

Glad to hear you and your wife are getting your finances sorted out and are feeling some relief.

I feel crappy still. I tried a variety of stuff. Zofran, Pepcid, Tylenol, a heating pad. My mom picked up some Pepto Bismol extra strength tablets today and I took one 45 minutes ago. I haven't had much of an appetite. Everything I eat really hurts my stomach. I sent another message into my doctor but if he wants me to go to the ER then I'm willing to at this point.

Sorry about your father and brother @Soupe du jour, you're in my thoughts.

Well my sleep trend didn't work out, I got up at 4am today. I didn't sleep in the morning so maybe tonight will be better.

I was supposed to go to the gym today but things didn't work out that way. Maybe I'll do some exercise at home later.