Bipolar Check-in #89

I'm glad it went so well @LadyShadow ! Did he say when he'd be in touch or just the Saturday discussion with the CPA? Can I ask what kind of job it is (no pressure to answer if that's too personal)?

I feel pretty much ok today. This monitor thing is irritainting me a bit physically.

I don't really have any plans for today. I need water eventually.

My uncles girlfriend is home but the details are hazy.

I found out that having dreams about giant endless malls is actually pretty common. I have them constantly and I just saw this podcast last night

Good morning. I woke up at 3:30am. Slept like 3 hours total. It’s 6am now. Have an appointment with my psychiatrist at 9am. Just trying to pass the time before then.

Having cramps from my period today, don't feel great and the lack of sleep isn’t helping.

I bought my ticket to see the new Final Destination movie in theater tomorrow. Excited! Been waiting on it to come out. I watched the original 5 movies to prep for seeing the new one.

Hey @Blue_Bird - I hope you feel better soon. My period really wrecked me this time around. So excited for you to see Final Destination too! I want to try to see it myself, but I think tomorrow is finally Thunderbolts day, lol. It's been taking me forever!

@BeyondtheRainbow - I don't mind sharing what the job is for, it's an Office Assistant, with focus on Quickbooks online and Microsoft Excel, which I am pretty good at. Have to refresh myself on some Quickbooks though. Really excited about it, I hope it works out.

I got up insanely early too. After the day I had yesterday, I thought I would sleep more. But it's 7:30am and I was able to catch some morning cartoons. Going to have a shower and start the day. Made my bed too, which is always a huge accomplishment.

Finally seeing my therapist later today, it's my once a month visit that I am always dying for. I wish I could have more therapy. We have a lot to discuss so I will be making the most of the hour. Going to visit my friend later too, so that should be fun.

Hope everyone has a fantastic Wednesday!

My psychiatrist said it’s fine to drop the trileptal since it’s not as effective for me and he prescribed Lamictal because he said it’s the best treatment in his experience as far as mood stabilizers go for bipolar disorder.

So I’ll be starting that this weekend. Keeping everything else the same.

I was on both for awhile. I personally didn't see much benefit in either. We opted for a antipsychotic with some mood stabilizing properties (Vraylar in this case) and it seemed to work best. I hope the Lamictal works for you. It's supposed to be pretty good for bipolar depression prevention.

Thanks! Trileptal didn’t seem super effective, I just kind of stayed on it for years cause I was afraid to try anything else. I used to be on vraylar a long time ago. It helped, though I switched to 30mg abilify though and find it more helpful for me personally.

I was gonna go back to Depakote but he advised against that because he sees better success with lamictal in people with bipolar and also Depakote can cause a lot of issues especially for women (polycystic ovarian syndrome, weight gain, problems with child birth). I don’t have plans to have children but I went with what he advised because I trust him since he has a lot of experience.

So now my meds are

Abilify 30mg
Lamictal (titrating up to 50mg until next appointment)
Thorazine 300mg
Zoloft 100mg

And klonopin as needed

Hopefully this works out well. Mainly I’m just trying to deal with my mood swings (euphoric highs, overspending, anger, irritability )

Glad you found a combo that helps you!

Off to the pharmacy in a few minutes to pick up my meds. I hate that there’s no pharmacy in walking distance anymore. There used to be a CVS down the street I could just walk down there and get my meds. Now I have to walk downtown , get the bus to a cvs and pick up my meds then take the bus back to downtown then walk home. Ugh. I hate it. It drives me nuts. It turns a 15 min errand into a two hour one. I dread every time I have to go.

I took Abilify and it worked well for me too, but when I switched psychiatrists my doctor really didn't want me on it (he's had bad experiences with it I suppose). It's also got some mood stabilizing effects so thats a plus. I know Lamictal to one of those drugs where if it works, it works well, if it doesn't, it doesn't at all. Let's hope its works well for you!! The titration is slow because of a rare condition that can occur, so be patient. It may be a while before you see improvement.

and for what it's worth -- I've tried over 30 meds for my conditions over the years and I'm so sick of trying new meds. My cocktail isn't perfect, but I refuse to make any more changes.. this is as good as it gets for me, which isn't bad.

Vraylar and Effexor for Bipolar, Adderall for ADHD, propranolol for Anxiety as needed. [benzos just never worked for me oddly enough... but adderall actually helped a lot with that inner restlesssness I always thought was anxiety.] To be honest, Latuda was like a miracle drug for me... except 3-4 hours after taking it I felt absolutely horrendous. Mood spikes and swing out the window. wanting to scream and cry and just bash my head agaisnt the wall wanting to feel better..... it was a wild ride... but after that, I felt absolutely great. Weird response, huh?

Keep us updated on your progress both in life and with meds! I enjoy reading your posts.

Just dragging my feet this morning. Work is painfully slow, I really hope I get that job I interviewed for.

Did some more QuickBooks training this morning; I am so glad there are so many free YouTube tutorials on it. Just getting really tired because I got up so early.

Just sitting here hoping work will pick up, but I don't really have anything to do till 2pm. Would have loved to go see the movie, but my theater stopped showing early showings. Real bummer.

Laundry is going now, and it stopped raining. I feel a little uneven right now though, and I don't know what's wrong. Maybe its just real anxiousness about this job I hope I get.

One of my cats took a dump on the kitchen table. I swear he wasn't using the litter box just not sure where.

My iron pill is killing my appetite. I read it can do that. Also my Nexium too. But my GI issues and mental health are under control today. So I feel good even though I'm still lacking physical energy.

I am so grateful for Uncrustables and PB&J Lunchables

He might be sick, cats tend to do stuff like that when they’re not feeling well

I love uncrustables. I used to get them at my school lunch every single day. Those and chocolate milk. So good lol

Thank you! I enjoy reading your posts as well! Latuda is a good med from what I hear. My psychiatrist mentioned it at one point but I ended up going with abilify which worked out

I hope things go well with you , and with your job, I do read your posts I know I don’t always respond but I do read them and enjoy them. I found your post about pharmacology (spelling?) very cool I find it admirable that you work. I wish I was able to handle it but from past experience I don’t handle the stress well at all. Maybe someday though. Your posts give me hope

@raspberrytorte thanks! That’s what I thought about Medicaid and Medicare. I appreciate the info

@LadyShadow I hope you’re able to go see Thunderbolts. I still haven’t gotten around to it lol. I hope you’re able to get that job!

So many posts to catch up on, I don't even know where to begin. @June08 so sorry about your depression being so bad of late, hopefully things will turn around after you get settled from the move. @LadyShadow - So excited for you, I hope good news is on the way! @Blue_Bird I'm on Trileptal but I swear it doesn't do much for me either, that's prescribed by the neurologist that for neuropathy. I'm not sure it helps the bipolar OR the neuropathy. I'm on Lamictal, and actually I do quite well on it. The lower dosages didn't help until I got to 200 mg daily. Ironically, the Lamictal helps both the bipolar AND the neuropathy. But pdoc says stay on the trileptal, it could be helping the bipolar, no way to really know at this point with all the polypharmacy going on. I see the PCP on Friday and I am going to be sure she requests bloodwork for the things all these meds could be doing to me. So far though all my bloodwork has been fine though sometimes I end up with iron anemia that iron pills don't help and end up needing iron infusions which are a pain. Lately I've had bad high cholesterol but the PCP says my good cholesterol is so high it outweighs the bad, it's not a concern?!

Anyway, my day so far has been as usual: walk, shower, reading with the SAD lamp, drawing and painting with watercolors. But I am really proud of myself; the drawing of the abyssinian cat was so difficult to get the proportions right. I worked on it for a long time. In the past, I would have long given into frustration, but today, I knew I could do it, it was more like a challenge, and I kept at it until I had something that resembled a cat, and still I had fun doing it. Anyway, the cat is in the creative corner forum. The watercolor I did today is a watermelon, and I'm still I novice, but I have to say I'm proud of this one!

Wow that watermelon is beautiful @Blueberrybook yeah the trileptal also caused my sodium levels to be very low I noticed in my bloodwork. Like the edge of bare minimum acceptable levels. Which is not good and it scared me. So it’s good I’m getting off that. Cause that can be dangerous and that’s a side effect of it can cause sodium levels to be too low. I see my psychiatrist again in a month to check in and see how things are going once I’m titrated up to 50mg of lamictal

@Blue_Bird That's interesting about Trileptal and sodium levels. My sodium levels have been low in my bloodwork too but like one point below the cutoff for normal, so the doctor wasn't concerned about it saying that was in the range of human error. Nice all our bloodwork goes through the range of human error...! I'm sure the my PCP will request to test the sodium levels when I see her on Friday as she always requests the complete metabolic panel.

Do you remember the grilled cheese Uncrustable? I hope they bring them back but the Lunchable grilled cheese is pretty good too.

Nope never knew they had them. They probably were really good though!

That watermelon looks juicy!

Ugh. One of the tests my doctor ordered last week was a stool test for h. pylori. I got the specimen last night and took it up (45 minutes each way) today. Turns out the doctor's office gave me the wrong container and the one they gave me was not usable for the test. So I have to go through it all again.


I keep trying to focus on the drive being some time I can listen to my audiobook and it's good to get out of the house but it's hard to ignore that it makes me feel sick and the entire thing is gross.

Oh well. Worse things have happened.

Wow that watermelon is so good, I thought it was a high resolution photo! Great job

I also thought it was a photo!

I have bronchitis. Got more cough pills.

So sorry you're sick @Moose72. I hope the cough pills help.