For those of you close enough to have read the now temporarily defunct other blog, you know we, as a family have been through a whole lot of hell with Baby Boy since December of last year. The short of it is that eventually he was diagnosed with severe early onset schizo-affective disorder… two weeks prior to my mother finally being diagnosed with the same disorder. I feel like it’s something I’ve been dealing with all of my life in caring for others. But when it’s your own child, it’s something else entirely.
This came about just as I finally won my 4 year fight for disability. During those years I was without medical coverage. As an asthmatic with diastolic heart failure as a result of giving birth one too many times while having pulmonary stenosis and ventricular incompetence, I knew better than to let a sinus infection or bronchitis go untreated, but I did on more than one occasion which led to the development of COPD.
Myself and my children are extremely sensitive to stimulants of any sort. They tend to make us a bit manic. Add the stress of what we’ve gone through with Baby Boy and the addition of COPD medications, which are all stimulants and I became a ball of manic anxiety. It got to the point that 1mg of Xanax taken 4-5 times daily didn’t settle my nerves. Not even the additon of an antipsychotic mood stabilizer did the trick.
Baby Boy and I had our monthly appointment with the neuro-pyschiatrist on Friday. He was finally able to review my lumbar MRI screens and devise the best pain/anxiety/and mood treatment to give a try. So now for me it’s 5mg of Abilify 2x daily, 2mg Xanax 3x daily and 50 mg. of Tramadol at bedtime. I now sleep at night. Since starting the Spiriva for COPD two weeks ago, I had been fighting insomonia to no avail. Not even Melatnonine would knock me out. Nor Benedryll.
The numbness in my thigh isn’t bothering me nearly as bad, my daily migraine had disappeared, and I haven’t been this relaxed in years. Sure, I’m still up tight. But nothing like I had become after watching my child lose his mind six months ago. The Tramadol is also supposed to help the Fibromyalgia and while I cannot say that I am pain free, I can say it no longer is taking me 3 hours to get moving every morning.
So far, so good. Mellow is good.
