days_unfolding (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
days_unfolding) wrote2002-01-22 02:13 am
days_unfolding) wrote2002-01-22 02:13 am
Med doctor appointment
There's something just wrong about buying a pill box with an alarm while listening to Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night".
Had my appointment with my med doctor today. I've been suffering from clinical depression for about a month now. (The therapist in my bipolar class agreed exactly about the depression and degree of depression. I think that I'm getting a reputation with her as a good diagnostician.) That shouldn't be happening given that I'm taking lithium and an antidepressant. Up until Friday, I was going to ask my doctor to replace lithium with another drug for a variety of reasons: last time we increased my lithium dosage, I was hitting my head and walking into things, and generally you increase the lithium dosage when you increase the antidepressant dosage; all arthritis drugs conflict with lithium; for a while, tests showed abnormal kidney function; and lithium tends to make me lethargic and unmotivated even when I'm not depressed. However, I was leery of changing medications when I'm starting a new job.
So we thrashed all that out, and wound up increasing my antidepressant dosage without increasing my lithium dosage. The risk is that the antidepressant might make me manic, but at least I know what signs to watch for. (Insomnia might be another problem.) Later, he's amenable to changing my mood stabilizer from lithium to something else or adding something else as an adjunct. The question, of course, is when. I have an appointment with him in a month to see how the increase in dosage helped.
Oh, and the kidney function was normal on the last test.
I bought the pill box because I'll be taking meds three times a day, and I sometimes forget the mid-day dose. I really want a pill box that vibrates, though, instead of having an audible alarm. Oh, it just occurred to me that I could set an alarm on my cell phone. Duh. I just opened the pill box too. Oh well.
I'm LJing when I should go to sleep. This is not good.
Had my appointment with my med doctor today. I've been suffering from clinical depression for about a month now. (The therapist in my bipolar class agreed exactly about the depression and degree of depression. I think that I'm getting a reputation with her as a good diagnostician.) That shouldn't be happening given that I'm taking lithium and an antidepressant. Up until Friday, I was going to ask my doctor to replace lithium with another drug for a variety of reasons: last time we increased my lithium dosage, I was hitting my head and walking into things, and generally you increase the lithium dosage when you increase the antidepressant dosage; all arthritis drugs conflict with lithium; for a while, tests showed abnormal kidney function; and lithium tends to make me lethargic and unmotivated even when I'm not depressed. However, I was leery of changing medications when I'm starting a new job.
So we thrashed all that out, and wound up increasing my antidepressant dosage without increasing my lithium dosage. The risk is that the antidepressant might make me manic, but at least I know what signs to watch for. (Insomnia might be another problem.) Later, he's amenable to changing my mood stabilizer from lithium to something else or adding something else as an adjunct. The question, of course, is when. I have an appointment with him in a month to see how the increase in dosage helped.
Oh, and the kidney function was normal on the last test.
I bought the pill box because I'll be taking meds three times a day, and I sometimes forget the mid-day dose. I really want a pill box that vibrates, though, instead of having an audible alarm. Oh, it just occurred to me that I could set an alarm on my cell phone. Duh. I just opened the pill box too. Oh well.
I'm LJing when I should go to sleep. This is not good.