Stuff and Things

[jadecat]

So... saw the brain doc on Wednesday. I know you've all been waiting on tenterhooks to see how that one went. Doc M. is highly amusing, I had forgotten just how eccentric he is. While talking I mentioned my dog, which prompted him to tell me about Bruno, the dog they rescued. Complete with pulling out his cellphone and opening it so I could see the picture he has... Bruno is a very cute, goofy looking dog. Mutt of some sort.

Anyway, we talked dogs, my brain, how anti-depressants depress me... He's very curious to see the results of next week's sleep study, as am I for that matter. We're doing away with the Prozac and neurontin. Since they're really not doing anything for me. At least, nothing positive. So I go through the sleep study and see. In the meantime I'm also going to start taking melatonin to help me sleep at night (Doc thinks sleeping issues could be a major factor in my head troubles) and he wants me to go to PT for my neck soreness. Basically- I start to get a migraine and my neck tenses up, which in turn feeds into my head pain. If I can work on the neck pain, and not feed the migraine- it should be better. So yeah, many things to do, not all pharmaceutical- which I like. Doc doesn't particularly like, but I'm stubborn. :)

One of my many reasons for not wanting to be on a ton of pharmaceuticals is that moving thing. I don't know how many of the meds he wants me one would be easily accessible in Ireland. Not only that, but if it's stuff I have to take daily- what would I do between leaving my current job and getting set up on the Irish medical insurance? If my migraines can be mostly managed non-pharmaceutically, and I have useful rescue drugs- I would prefer it.

However, while we're changing things- the brain chemistry is a little funky. And my sleep is even more messed up than usual... That should get sorted out fairly quickly though. I hope. This foggy mental state is just annoying. Especially as I tend to want to nap in the morning, and they frown on my doing that at work. Silly people.

Let's see... Oh yes, earlier this week hubby went to a staff meeting at work- and came out with a pen with a laser pointer on one end. This is now quite possibly the Best Cat Toy in Leo's eyes. He's been having a blast chasing that darned little red light all OVER! Sasha, is not so impressed. A couple nights ago, Hubby is standing near the kitchen/dining area, sending Leo running all over the apartment after the light (including under and over the Kyle). Sasha is on the chair near hubby, she gets up on her back legs- and bats the PEN! Why chase the light when you can get to the source? Much more successful and requires less actual work. *snickers* I love my cat.

Lastly- Yay for Friday!!!

Comments

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

Well, in Northern Ireland you'd have the NHS :D

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

Well, we're looking at the Republic of. :)

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

:D

All good, though :D

[robinskij.livejournal.com]

Lack of sleep screws up a whole lotta stuff.

And there is no better cat toy than lazers...it's like crack to cats. heh.

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

So my doc was telling me, although my sleep wasn't quite as screwed up until the neurontin...

Leo LOVES the laser pointer... He'll definitely be getting his exercise!

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

Yay for Friday, indeed!

We can't have laser pointers in the house. Sophie is way too obsessive about looking for the light.

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

Wow, I've heard that some animals can be that way. I guess it's lucky that Leo can be distracted.

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

Shepherds are very into things being a certain way.... they don't like it when you mess with their routine.

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

We had a German Shepherd when I was a teen- and she got very set into certain things happening in a certain order. That and fighting (even in play) was NOT ALLOWED!!

[robinskij.livejournal.com]

I'm not against drugs if they alleivate suffering but I'm all for using the smallest caliber possible, and the longer a drug has been around, the better. You never hear them discovering that everyone's having heart attacks from some drug that's been around for 25 years and is now over the counter. Of course they aren't as profitable for bigpharma so they don't get pushed. But my doctor has always been willing to let me try the smaller gun drugs first - and you know what, most of the time, they've worked as well or better than the brand new expensive versions. Which are often not much more than a slight change so as to renew the patent and keep you from getting it generic.

Managing my GERD non pharmecutically with a rescue drug as backup (I take zantac only if I need it on a refluxy day, which is rare now, intead of purple pills daily) has worked well for me. I think it's very wise to try to manage some conditions that way. Not all, obviously, but a lot of them.

Good for you - keep on being proactive in your health. :-)

Sometimes there is a brand new shiney that is a change and an improvement, but I never assume that it is better or even much different just because it's new.

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

I'm a fan of better living through chemistry... But sometimes it seems like the cure's side effects are worse than the disease. And yeah, the smallest effective dosage is good. I was just getting terribly frustrated because the so-called preventatives weren't preventing shit! If they did what they were supposed to do- than I would be quite happy to take them.

But yeah, being the daughter of a nurse, and married to one, I've heard lots and lots about being stubborn with doctors. :)

[robinskij.livejournal.com]

Chemistry, applied wisely, is a very good thing.

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

yes, I agree with this nearly 100%. However, it's not always true in some cases. My psychiatrist is also in research and only has a small amount of patients outside of his predominating researching so he's very well informed of things that haven't gone public yet. For example, klonopin is less dangerous than benadryl or antihistamines of that class during a pregnancy. I don't think that has gone public yet or not, but I was so very thankful for his knowledge on the subject.

I do try for the smallest dose possible to manage my mood, and I know that some people who are taking mood-altering drugs really seem as though they just need therapy or some soul searching rather than medication.

I'm also a big fan for brain-health nutrition. I take two Omega-3 pills a day for example and also try for over-all physical health as well as just mental health, through nutrition and exercise.

[robinskij.livejournal.com]

Oh, of course sometimes new DOES in fact mean better.

But you should never assume either way, not when it comes to your health.

~and some people should just be on mood meds their entire life and that's all there is to it. Some people just can't get out of bed on their own and they can't will themselves out of it. But others might be greatly helped by somehow getting more happy in their life - or perhaps realizing that just because they have a few blue days once in a while, they aren't defective - just normal.

Also I think this country is waaay too judgemental about pain meds and now people who actually are in pain are having a time getting them...all my doctor's offices have big notices, "NO PAIN MEDS". WTF? So if I break my damn leg or have a 3rd degree burn I'm supposed to make do with tylenol? Screw tylenol. It never alleviates anything for me.

So, when it's warranted, I'm all for meds. As I said, used wisely.

Where I think people overmedicate the most is digestive ailments...which very often really can be greatly allieviated with some changes.

Sometimes lifestyle change along won't do it - high blood pressure runs in my family no matter HOW virtuous we are about diet and excercise - but if you can relieve GERD by losing only 10 pounds (which I did - didn't have to be a buff beach body or a size 2, just had to lose ten pounds) instead of taking those purple pills that they are already finding out have long term bad effects, then that effort should be made, I think.

And omega 3's are practically a wonder food. Which none of us get enough of from our diet.

[alfabet126.livejournal.com]

Hope you get the brain wonkies figured out. :D

Frizzy loved the laser pointer, too. He learned pretty quickly where it came from, though, and he had to be in just the right mood to chase the dot. The other cat we had for a while, Pandora, would go nuts for the light, though. We had her practically climbing the walls trying to capture it.

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) Natural oddness I can handle, this drug induced kind I don't like...

Leo probably 'gets' it, but he does so enjoy the chase...

[alfabet126.livejournal.com]

Even better than a cat and a laser? A ferret and a laser. There is slinky hilarity o'plenty. :D

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

Sasha is a genius.

I have one question - how are *YOU*?

How do you feel about all of this? And how do you feel now?

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

I'm happy that I'm not on so many drugs- I didn't like that I was put on Prozac... I would much rather try other approaches- things that might actually work. ;)

I've been really tired lately- part of it is not sleeping well, but also because I'm in head pain most of the time. That kind of thing can be really wearing. I can't even really take sick days from work- because my bosses often aren't here and someone has to answer the phone. On the plus side- the office tends to be quiet, so even with a migraine I can still mostly function at work. I'd rather not, but I can, so I do.

Other than that- I'm sticking with optimism. If we keep poking at what's wrong, eventually we'll find a way to deal with it. :) (ignoring it and hoping it goes away didn't work. *laughs*)

[zen-kitty.livejournal.com]

Dr. M is allopathic through and through. He doesn't even believe in acupuncture even though the pain management societies have been having seminars on the benefits for years.

If Hubby is working next week and you need transport - just let me know. I'll work my schedule around it for you.

*hugs*

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Thanks. :) Hubby is working, I think, but I wasn't too concerned about getting myself there and back.

And yeah, Dr. M really believes in better living through chemistry...

[jaimem30.livejournal.com]

Glad you might have some new options to work through. I love melatonin; since I have the crazy hallucinations with Ambien, I can't take regular sleeping pills. Melatonin seems to keep most of the morning-after grogginess to a minimum. There's some good teas out there (available at Meijer or Kroger, pretty much anywhere) that you may want to try, too. A nice cuppa before bed on a winter's night. :)

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

: ) I'm glad that you're getting the help you need. Hopefully this one will work out. I'm so sad for you that the usual medications aren't helping as much. But I'm glad for you that you're continuing to pursue treatment.

Something that I've experienced with my depression/anxiety is that when I go through a run of taking meds that don't work, I get even more hopeless. But it just makes it that much better when the right medication gets prescribed and it clicks.

And yes - couldn't be more happy about it being Friday. : )

[robinskij.livejournal.com]

This public service announcement is appropriate at this time, I think.

[aphiorogue.livejournal.com]

too true.!! Also we have a laser pointer cat toy (shapped like a mouse) drives the kitties bonkers. (in a good way - they loves it! )

[miintikwa.livejournal.com]

Sasha cracks me up. :D

Also, have you been "tested" for bipolar disorder?

[englandbound.livejournal.com]

not assuming that you can get the same drugs in Ireland is a good thing. I didn't think much about it when we moved to England and I went to get birth control pills. I brought along what I was using at the time and they either hadn't heard of one of the ingredients or it was one that they don't use here. I believe it was simply some form of synthetic estrogen or progesterone...my horrible memory doesn't recall the details. But anyway, the exact combination of drugs for this wasn't as important as it could be for your migranes. If you can find another way to reduce/control your migranes it could be quite useful...but that's just my two pence ;)