Apparently cocktail 66:
This year has not had a lot of med changes. Things have been relatively stable most of the time. Not every day or every week but I haven't cycled like in the past. We did try to increase gabapentin to 500 mg but I immediately had issues so we stopped. I didn't tolerate gabapentin well before at more normal doses and that apparently will continue. Due to surgery I was on Vicodin for part of the summer and like after my hysterectomy it seemed to have a mood stabilizing effect in the few weeks I took it. Too bad it's not a viable mood stabilizer.
In February 2015 I started an episode that became pretty severe by March 2015. I went back on valium but it wasn't helping; if I took it before I was tired it did nothing and if I took it after I was tired but not asleep it just made me sleep all day and have trouble sleeping the next day. So we tried liquid valium which just made things worse.
Ultimately I was upped to 1500 mg of Seroquel XR temporarily and am taking 2.5 mg of valium when I start feeling tired and then another 2.5 mg of valium when I'm starting to get sleepy. I'll eventually need to get off all of this and back to my regular doses but first I have to conquer this episode. I am also using pink grapefruit essential oils to calm myself and having good success with that. It's not a medicine but it helps me relax a little and it if works it deserves mention here so that I can remember it later if needed.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Long time--Catching up to May 2014
It's been way too long since I updated. There were some big changes and then things were pretty stable for a while and I got lazy.
Anyway, Feb. 1, 2014 I had my 3rd lithium toxicity. That was the end for lithium. This one involved being violently ill to the point my mom almost called an ambulance but there isn't a good place near here for psych and there was no way to get me to my hospital so we waited and watched and I stopped taking lithium. Sometime after that I began to get depressed and wanted lithium back, even knowing it was a bad idea. So my Seroquel XR was increased to 1200 mg. That stopped the symptoms I was having then pretty effectively. So at that point my meds were:
Anyway, Feb. 1, 2014 I had my 3rd lithium toxicity. That was the end for lithium. This one involved being violently ill to the point my mom almost called an ambulance but there isn't a good place near here for psych and there was no way to get me to my hospital so we waited and watched and I stopped taking lithium. Sometime after that I began to get depressed and wanted lithium back, even knowing it was a bad idea. So my Seroquel XR was increased to 1200 mg. That stopped the symptoms I was having then pretty effectively. So at that point my meds were:
- Seroquel XR 1200 mg
- Emsam 9 mg/24 hour transdermal
- Klonopin 2 mg bedtime, 1-2 mg PRN
- Gabapentin 400 mg
- Topamax 25 mg
- Amitiza 24 mcg twice a day (constipation)
- Singulair 10 mg (asthma)
- synthroid 88 mcg (thyroid)
- Vit. B
- multi-vitamin
- Vit. D
- Calcium
- Amerge (triptan for migraines)
- magnesium (for migraines)
- Vicodin prn for migraines that don't respond to Amerge or that Amerge won't work for as it has a window of opportunity that is minutes long)
- inhalers as needed (I choose to not use one for maintenance because it makes me hyopmanic)
In April 2014 an extremely stressful event occurred in my family and I was using all my Klonopin and still couldn't sleep so a low dose of Valium was given. I could use 1.25-5 mg and mostly was pretty good around 2.5 mg. It worked quickly and effectively and I got 8-10 hours of sleep and woke up refreshed. I tapered off that in late May 2014.
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