[masterofirony]

This weekend I had a terrible, horrible, indescribable stomach flu that landed me in the ER twice for dehydration and to rule out appendicitis (which is still on the table).

I thought while sick "wow, it's so good to have a med I can still take while sick" and left the patch on. I haven't ever heard it's a bad idea to do that when dehydrated, but it's also new to me and I've not had as much education as would be good because my doctor has been on medical leave and the hospital didn't do a very good job.

I wound up with a head to toe rash and blood pressure that would be high for me when hydrated. The rash started to reduce in intensity within 10 minutes of the patch coming off, and IV benadryl took care of the rest.

My psychiatrist is just back to work this week sometime. I see her Saturday and have multiple emergency calls in (one from me, one from my psychologist) but the secretary wouldn't listen nor take a specific message so I suspect she'll think it's ok to wait until Saturday to answer.

My family doctor doesn't want me to resume the patches without her permission. I was having some reaction to the adhesive (redness that lasted several days, itching, occasionally a rashy thing) and he is afraid that my second rash means I'll have a dangerous, systemic allergic reaction if I try it again in an uncontrolled situation. This is an understandable question, and I have some severe allergies that make it more likely.

But I'm totally off my antidepressant and when my body realizes that I'm going to become very, very depressed very, very quickly. I know this for sure because I just did this when I went on the Emsam at the end of October. I'm days from hospitalization right now, I'm sure, and I'm mainly ok right now I imagine because I had so much Emsam in my system from the dehydration.

Has anyone had a similar experience? I'm writing this thinking "fat chance", but it's worth a shot.

Hydration is a must with all psychotropics. I actually had the opposite problem with ensam. It lowered my blood pressure so far that I kept passing out. Hope it gets worked out.

[masterofirony]

This wound up being ok, at least so far. My psychiatrist got me back on the patch and I'm ok so far, which is a good sign.

My BP is fine with Emsam, except for that period of time when there was way too much in my system.

For what it is worth, I do realize I need to be hydrated when sick. However I have a condition called diabetes insipidus that resulted from longterm lithium usage and it means I'm dehydrated somewhat all the time. So severe dehydration with illness is likely for me because to stay hydrated on a normal day I have to drink pretty much constantly. If I can't do that I very rapidly get dehydrated to the point of it being dangerous. So, really, that part I can't do much about. A certain percentage of the time if I'm sick I'm going to need fluids.