Posted by Lyrical13 on February 2, 2004, at 14:25:22
In reply to Im Here!!! » Lyrical13, posted by femlite1 on February 2, 2004, at 12:28:48
Hi Femlite-
Don't feel bad....I totally forgot about it with the insanity of the last couple weeks (hectic schedule). I just realized a few days ago that I hadn't gotten any more posts about the chat thing and then I felt bad because I thought I left YOU out in limbo!!! LOLThings WERE going really well until this week. I started Lamictal last Saturday (1/24). I only started on 25mg. All was fine...couldn't tell any difference until Thurs. AM when I noticed a few red spots under my right eye. They were very itchy. Kind of like bug bites. Later that day my whole body was itchy, but strangely, more on the right side. Well, the fact that I have psoriasis kind of complicates things...I have had it on my scalp forever and it started on my elbows in my mid 20s (I'm 34 now). Over the past couple months, more and more patches have shown up in more and more places. I've never had it on my face before, but then again, I never had it on my back, neck, shoulders, breast (!), inner arm, upper leg, etc. before a couple months ago either. It didn't quite look like psoriasis but I recently learned there are 5 different kinds and so far I had only had 3 of them...maybe this was a new 4th kind? Also, the itchy all over part could be winter skin dryness....So I took the Th PM dose. The next day I was worse! More spots on my face, itchy all over and spots starting to form by left eye. So I talked to teh school nurse (I work at a school) and she looked it up in her dermotology book. See...Lamictal has a common side effect of a rash. Sometimes it goes away after a couple weeks (ugh). But in rare cases, it doesn't...it ends up being Steven Johnsons sydrome which is permanent and can cause blindness and even death. But there's no real way to tell if it's the annoying but harmless rash or the death rash.... Isn't that fun? Well, after the nurse read that the beginnng lesions for SJS are like bug bites I quickly decided to d/c the med and call my doc. I left a msg for my pdoc that I was stopping the med and why and for him to call me when he came into the office on Tues. Figured I'd be fine until then and we'd talk about trying a different mood stabilizer.
OK...well, then I had a hellish weekend. I'm still on Effexor 225mg and I had been taking 25mg of Seroquel and 0.25mg Ambien to help me sleep. I was so irritable this weekend and was rapid cycling... euphoria to calm to irritable to OK to irate to depressed all within about an hour. I've never had that happen before. I might be irritable and suddenly angry intermixed with calm along with the hypomania but I usually stay hypomanic for several months and then the depression starts slowly creeping back and hits full force in Sept. I've been slightly hypomanic since Nov. Last year I was solidly hypo by March.
So....I upped my seroquel to 50mg last night. Had a rough time getting up this am but I made it and got to work OK. I cried a little bit before I saw my first students. Cried even more afterwards. The crying started when I called my pdoc and the receptionist griped at me about calling him..."You're not supposed to leave a message for him. He's not in until Tues. That's why he didnt' call you back this weekend when you left a message". I told her I knew that but that I just wanted him to know what was going on with my meds and I thought I would be just fine until he got in Tues. But then had a rough weekend and could someone contact him. She then lectured me again about I'm not supposed to call the office to reach him..I'm supposed to go through my therapist. It would have been nice if they had told me that! I just started at this particular clinic back in Sept. I had weekly appts with my counselor at that time so this situation never came up. So...by the time the receptionist transferred me to my counselor's voicemail I was crying...sobbing while leaving the msg for my T. Called hubby to come and pick me up from work. Cried and cried. CAme home and am OK now. But a co-worker is coming to get me in a few minutes because I have another training tonight from 4-7:30. I don't want to miss it because there is a stipend involved. This is a series of 6 seminars. You have to go to all 6 to get the stipend. We could use the extra cash.
So anyway, my T called me back and she got me an appt with my pdoc for tomorrow. I think part of the problem today is that I was feelng crappy from the increase in the Seroquel..dizzy and fatigued.
Anyway, why don't we just decide on a chat time and try to chat. I couldn't get in the last time when I tried to get into the chat part but i'll try again. If that doesn't work then maybe we can set up an IM chat through AOL (can get free IM setup even if u don't subscribe to AOL..I don't and I got it fine for free.) Or through ICQ or something.
Well, gotta run. My friend will be here any minute.
L13
poster:Lyrical13
thread:301939
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040131/msgs/308565.html