*crawls out of bed*
Sep. 3rd, 2003 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeOh. My. God.
I'm tired. Then again, that's not surprising. Still. Oog.
So the point of this post is actually not to complain about how tired I am, but to mention that things have gone relatively well since Sunday. That's also not surprising, because I had an appointment with the Associate Chief of Psychiatry at the hospital yesterday.
My brain is sneaky. It knew I had this appointment, so Monday and Tuesday were okay. It's like it had a meeting with all neurons and synapses: "Okay, she's taking us to this guy who's going to make us work and maybe give us meds to make us not act the way we want to. Quick, act like everything's normal!"
Nice try, brain.
So I saw Dr. Steiner yesterday, and he thinks I may have Cyclothymia and not Bipolar II, although Bipolar II is still a strong possibility. He says Cyclothymia because he's "not sure" how serious the depression is —whether it's hypodepression or actual major depression. (Ahem, I got news for you, buddy) I think he was unsure because I've managed to function for the past year and a half, instead of being completely unable to get out of bed the way I was before. *shakes fist at Sneaky!Brain that pretended everything was fine*
Doesn't really matter, because a mood disorder is a mood disorder is a mood disorder (in this case), and Cyclothymia and Bipolar II are treated with exactly the same meds.
I won't be working with him very long. He's referred me to a clinic in the same department where I'll be followed by another psychiatrist who actually does therapy at the same time, so that meds and therapy are all included in the same package. The clinic is called MUSIC (McGill University Sexual Identity Clinic), the first of its kind in all of Canada (whee!), and deals with, you guessed it, GLBT patients who have psychiatric disorders as well. So I had to skate around what the acronym meant when my parents quizzed me about it last night. *innocent whistle*
Dr. Steiner was very nice and very receptive to my input, which was nice. I think he was also either impressed or something that I had done so much research into all of this. At least, he seemed very open to discussing treatment options, as opposed to just sticking me on medication and sending me on my way or leaving me on the same medication the way the other doctors did.
So now I'm starting a therapeutic dosage of Neurontin (yay) —which is an anti-convulsant— and we'll be slowly increasing that to see how it goes. I'm starting at 100mg for a week, then going up to 200mg. He figures I'll probably be up to 800mg before it has any real significant effect on me. We're starting slowly to see if the side effects cripple me.
Neurontin
SIDE EFFECTS: This drug is usually well tolerated. Drowsiness, dizziness, unsteadiness, fatigue or nausea may occur. If these effects persist or worsen, notify your doctor.
Unlikely to occur but report promptly: mental or mood changes, tingling or numbness of the hands or feet, swelling of ankles, vision problems, fever, unusual bleeding.
Very unlikely to occur but report promptly: fainting, difficulty moving, stiffness, uncontrolled movements, stomach or abdominal pain, leg pain, chest pain, trouble breathing.
Unusual bleeding?!?!? Err... O_O
Other websites have listed the following additional side-effects:
Ataxia (random muscle weakness or failure)
Nystagmus (involuntary, rhythmic eye movement, which can be vertical, horizontal or circular)
Tremor
And then there's a list as long as my arm of really rare side-effects that occurred in less than 1% of test groups which I'm not going to bother with here. I'm not usually that sensitive to these meds (at least, taking Paxil wasn't the nightmare for me that it was for some people, which leads me to believe that I shouldn't have too many problems with the Neurontin). I'm just not looking forward to the nausea. Had that with the Paxil for nearly two weeks when I started. Yeurgh.
Will be off to the Pharmacy soon to get prescription. All good. :)
I'm tired. Then again, that's not surprising. Still. Oog.
So the point of this post is actually not to complain about how tired I am, but to mention that things have gone relatively well since Sunday. That's also not surprising, because I had an appointment with the Associate Chief of Psychiatry at the hospital yesterday.
My brain is sneaky. It knew I had this appointment, so Monday and Tuesday were okay. It's like it had a meeting with all neurons and synapses: "Okay, she's taking us to this guy who's going to make us work and maybe give us meds to make us not act the way we want to. Quick, act like everything's normal!"
Nice try, brain.
So I saw Dr. Steiner yesterday, and he thinks I may have Cyclothymia and not Bipolar II, although Bipolar II is still a strong possibility. He says Cyclothymia because he's "not sure" how serious the depression is —whether it's hypodepression or actual major depression. (Ahem, I got news for you, buddy) I think he was unsure because I've managed to function for the past year and a half, instead of being completely unable to get out of bed the way I was before. *shakes fist at Sneaky!Brain that pretended everything was fine*
Doesn't really matter, because a mood disorder is a mood disorder is a mood disorder (in this case), and Cyclothymia and Bipolar II are treated with exactly the same meds.
I won't be working with him very long. He's referred me to a clinic in the same department where I'll be followed by another psychiatrist who actually does therapy at the same time, so that meds and therapy are all included in the same package. The clinic is called MUSIC (McGill University Sexual Identity Clinic), the first of its kind in all of Canada (whee!), and deals with, you guessed it, GLBT patients who have psychiatric disorders as well. So I had to skate around what the acronym meant when my parents quizzed me about it last night. *innocent whistle*
Dr. Steiner was very nice and very receptive to my input, which was nice. I think he was also either impressed or something that I had done so much research into all of this. At least, he seemed very open to discussing treatment options, as opposed to just sticking me on medication and sending me on my way or leaving me on the same medication the way the other doctors did.
So now I'm starting a therapeutic dosage of Neurontin (yay) —which is an anti-convulsant— and we'll be slowly increasing that to see how it goes. I'm starting at 100mg for a week, then going up to 200mg. He figures I'll probably be up to 800mg before it has any real significant effect on me. We're starting slowly to see if the side effects cripple me.
Neurontin
SIDE EFFECTS: This drug is usually well tolerated. Drowsiness, dizziness, unsteadiness, fatigue or nausea may occur. If these effects persist or worsen, notify your doctor.
Unlikely to occur but report promptly: mental or mood changes, tingling or numbness of the hands or feet, swelling of ankles, vision problems, fever, unusual bleeding.
Very unlikely to occur but report promptly: fainting, difficulty moving, stiffness, uncontrolled movements, stomach or abdominal pain, leg pain, chest pain, trouble breathing.
Unusual bleeding?!?!? Err... O_O
Other websites have listed the following additional side-effects:
Ataxia (random muscle weakness or failure)
Nystagmus (involuntary, rhythmic eye movement, which can be vertical, horizontal or circular)
Tremor
And then there's a list as long as my arm of really rare side-effects that occurred in less than 1% of test groups which I'm not going to bother with here. I'm not usually that sensitive to these meds (at least, taking Paxil wasn't the nightmare for me that it was for some people, which leads me to believe that I shouldn't have too many problems with the Neurontin). I'm just not looking forward to the nausea. Had that with the Paxil for nearly two weeks when I started. Yeurgh.
Will be off to the Pharmacy soon to get prescription. All good. :)
