Riding the Wave ... And the Trough

I am mentally ill, diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder I, OCD, ADHD, PTSD and a vitamin B12 deficiency (a key element in brain development). For over 12 years, I took anywhere from 5-8 psychotropic meds each day, and have been recently giving myself a monthly injection of B12.

In January 2012 I was hospitalized for depression, and management of my currrent med cocktail. Immediately all but two of my meds were discontinued and, after a few weeks of adjustment, and some near hospitalizations, things seem to be going much better.

I have been on permanent disability since January 2010, and am adjusting to life on a very limited income.

My prayer is that in walking with me during the ups and downs of Bipolar Disorder, you might find solace, and benefit through my experiences.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

I'm Baa-ack

Howdy do. I know I am mending from the foot surgery because I am now focusing on my mental condition. Somehow I thought when I was recovering, and in pain that the MI wouldn't be here when I recovered. Yeah, Right! no such luck, so I welcome my old friend back.

The surgery went well, and I had a local nerve block, and the "Twilight" medication. (made me forget, I guess ... I forgot) I do remember them putting the needle into the end of my toe - that hurt a bunch - but otherwise, I simply dozed off, woke up, and was able to leave right away. None of that lying around waiting for the effects of the meds to wear off.

My main problems was with the vicadin. I decided that I would take it every four hours, so that's exactly what I did. Every four hours I'd pop one or two of them and, since I was back on my meds after surgery, I'd continued taking them too. Here's where something went terribly wrong.

I either took too much, or the combination of the two types didn't agree with me, or the "V" simply sat around in my system, and waited to attack the pain (me) all at once. Whatever the reason I spent most of the first two days trapped in some kind of Lewis Carroll fantasy land that scared the shit out of me. I finally realized that, duh, it might be the painkillers and I stopped taking them. After 4-6 hours, I started to return to "normal".

The great thing about this surgery is that once the memory of the surgery begins to fade, and I'm ready, I have to have the left foot done also.

The moral of this story: You can only take handfuls of pain killer for so long until until you wished you hadn't.

X /T + M > To = SM; where X=# of painkillers, T=time span for taking X,
M = psychotropic meds (constant), To = tolerance level (if you don't know this before, you'll
sure know it afterwards), SM = space mountain (remember when Alice fell down the
rabbit hole; what you'll experience here makes that seem perfectly normal normal.
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1 comment:

  1. oh yeah, pain meds + psych meds = mania...it sucks because you have to hurt or go nuts...believe me, i know!

    ReplyDelete