Posted by bleauberry on December 28, 2009, at 18:03:33
In reply to At what point do you stop trying + come to terms?, posted by Girlnterrupted78 on December 28, 2009, at 4:50:54
Well, for me, I come to terms right now in the present. I admit and accept I am not going to be the dream I want today, tomorrow, next week, or next month. But give up completely? No way. I come to terms right now to be realistic, because it helps me go forward. It allows me to focus on what I have and to work with that.
For example if I had a Porche, but it had a terrible engine banging and it leaked a quart of oil every 10 miles and I no one around knows how to work on a Porche and I can't drive it far away right now. Well, ok. I have to drive it careful. Go easy. I have to rest it a lot. I have to keep adding good oil. I have to pamper it. Someday I'll have enough money saved up to load it on a tow truck that can take it to a city where it will be fixed. But for now I have to accept what is and make the best of it. While everyone else is going 75mph on the highway, I'll be going 45mph. Not forever, but for today yes.
Some of the best music I've recorded was when I felt the worst. I force myself to play when I'm in bad shape. It is an escape, but it hands me gifts in return for the faith of sitting down to do it even though I would have rather just died.
So I accept today as it is. But, my eye IS on the future. Like you, I have exhausted so many options. Let's see, out of the entire universe, the only two I have not tried are Nardil or Effexor. I've done failed ECT.
But, you and I have to realize that there are so many different combinations and permutations of meds, there is no way we could possibly have tried them all.
Here's a real life example. A guy has been on all the drugs. His last choice is Nardil. It works a little and poops out fast. He returns to a former drug, Cymbalta. He had added a lot of things to it the last time he tried it, but not Wellbutrin. This time he adds Wellbutrin. It is a little better than Cymbalta alone, but he is still in bad shape. Then he adds Savella to it. Within 2 weeks he is in remission. He tries to wean off the Cymbalta, thinking it is Savella doing the magic, but he relapses, reintroduces Cymbalta back in. Tries to stop Wellbutrin, relapses, reintroduces. None of the drugs on their own, and no two of them on their own, did much. The three together were magic. And who would have ever figured? I mean, the combination involved combining two SNRIs. Admittedly only one is really a balanced SNRI, but still, you know what I mean.
I think when we get to this point we have to think outside the box. We cannot stick to common protocols. We cannot do what looks theoretically like it makes sense. We have to combine things that we never combined before. We have to get away from the whole diagnosis thing. Just try stuff and to hell with whatever some doctor calls it. Doesn't matter at this point. The diagnosis itself may be the problem preventing going the right path.
And all the while, we need to revisit the diagnosis. People get sick of me saying it, but it happens, and is worth knowing...my doctor says some of his Lyme patients present with only one symptom...depression...that is poorly responsive to meds. They instead respond very well to antibiotics for their depression. As another poster here commented on recently. I mean, I could go into several different topics here, but the general idea is...we HAVE to expand our world outside the psychiatrists office and creatively look for more information that was maybe missed along the way.
In the meantime, there are combinations you have not tried. Yeah? Personally I think it is a good rule of thumb to keep the maximum number of meds at any given time to three. Within that framework, the amount of different things we can try is amazing. And we cannot rule out a med because it didn't work before...it may well work like magic when it has the right partner(s).
Without even any idea of everything you've tried, was a combination with Savella on that list? Just curious. Doesn't mean anything, just curious.
You will get better. I can see it.
poster:bleauberry
thread:931208
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091227/msgs/931310.html