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Symptom control vs. Quality of Life with meds

Good morning to all.

 

I'm up and about at 4am due to a change in my medication.

 

Though this has been a personally difficult year for me we made some changes to my meds last Summer due to quality of life issues.  I cut my Geodon to 1 dose per day at night and we added another medication to help with agitation during the day.  It was great to be off the morning dose 0f Geodon and to be awake all day (the Geodon make me narcoleptic for about 2 hours after dosing).  I did not realize how much I was missing the extra Geodon however.

 

I kept telling myself (and my therapist agreed) that anybody would be having a hard time with the things that happened this last year.  It wasn't until I almost committed suicide two weeks ago that I started to think I might need the Geodon.  I wasn't depressed, it was part of an ongoing battle I have with my demon.   I could not remember how I was on the Geodon 2X/day, but I did have enough insight to call my Doc about it. 

 

So now I have been back on 2X  80mg of Geodon for a week.  After three days I noticed a huge difference.  My mind had calmed considerably.  And though some things don't go away the intensity is down.  I'm now sleeping on two shifts.  Usually I fall asleep about an hour or two after my dose and sleep around 5 hours at night and then 2-3 hours in the morning.

 

It makes normalcy difficult.  All activity has to be scheduled around my wacky sleep schedule.  It's an unfortunate thing that I think I've finally come to accept.  It has also made me accept that I do NEED this medication.  I cannot through willpower or valor make my illness go away. 

 

BTW: Don't forget to move up your clocks this Saturday night (Yeah!) and Spring is only 15 days away. :-)

3/ 5/09 1:39pm

Hi OceanBlue,

 

I understand how you feel about a wacky sleep schedule.  For 20 years I was on Stelazine, which caused me to be fatigued in the morning so that I was late to nearly every job I had.  Unlike you, when I switched to the Geodon, I was able to wake up earlier in the morning.  This proves that I'm right in not recommending drugs to people, because the same medication could have a different effect for two different people.

 

You have gone through a lot and are going through a lot, so feel free to write SharePosts as you'd like. 

 

I also understand how it was to lower a dose and then taper off, because I did that to disastrous effect.

 

Regards,

Christina

3/ 5/09 9:50pm

I can empathize with you, OceanBlue.  I have gone through some medication juggling over the past year.  I switched from Zyprexa to Geodon, back to Zyprexa, back to Geodon, then on to Zyprexa Zydis, and now have gone from 20mg of Zyprexa to 40mg.  I am feeling "balanced" (stable) now on this dose.  Surprisingly, I feel less side effects on the 40mg than I did on the 20mg.  The only problem now is a little paranoia, but I have felt that most of my life.  I can handle it.

 

I'm glad you realized what you needed to do and were able to communicate that to your doctor.  Sometimes suicidal ideation can interfere with a person's ability to act wisely in her own behalf.  I had to attempt suicide 3 times before I learned that a hospital can be the best place when I'm feeling self-destructive. 

 

Carolyn

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