The Lamictal Blues, and other stuff...

Well, in my never ending quest for trying not to freak out 24/7, I have started sessions with a new psychiatrist.

It’s maddening trying to find a new doctor that takes your insurance AND is taking new patients, but luckily I have conquered both, and have a doctor that practices in Gaithersburg. She’s cool.

So…I’m on a new med in addition to what I take now. It’s called Lamictal, and based on my preliminary research, it’s an anti-seizure med that they’ve found also works for bipolars. I have no direct experience with it, but the doc seems convinced it’s the “gold standard” (her words) for bipolar treatment.

She said it didn’t seem to have the same side effects as other anti-seizure meds (weight gain, etc), and she had heard only bad things about Zyprexa (what I used to be on that made me bloat up like a toad and have no energy WHATSOEVER), so I’m in guinea pig status.

I took my first dose last night, and I don’t see anything bad thus far…either that, or my head looks like an over-inflated basketball and nobody’s telling me.

I know that Julie Fast (creator of http://www.bipolarhappens.com/ and author of two books about bipolar disorder from a patient’s point of view) is on it and it seems to agree with her (and as she tells you, SHE was med-resistant for a number of years). So maybe there’s something to the hype, huh?

At any rate, I’ll keep you posted on how it works, unless of course I have some sort of toxic reaction, and then I guess I WON’T!!!!!!!

In other news, Birgit Nillson has passed on to “Valhalla” at age 87. I read her obit, and I’m amazed at the fact that she was mostly self-trained as an opera singer, but she taught master classes to sopranos on their way up. WOW! I tried to do the opera thing but it just wasn’t for me. To read the whole obit about her interesting life, just click on her name. And YES, people, she is proof that people can do what they love until they die if their health and disposition allows them to. Wow.

So wish me luck, and Ms. Nillson, sing one for me, baby.

Sudiegirl