Up & Down – a personal blog

A number of things to update for today….

First, was relaxing, enjoying my day, content to stay at home after venturing out to the gym early this morning.  Then the phone rang – an appointment with the psychiatrist today.  Good thing they phone to remind me or I would have forgotten.  I naturally did the anxiety and procrastination thing right up until the point where I had to leave, but this time I left myself with enough time to actually find a decent parking spot and sit in the office for a few minutes.

The appointment was timely in that I wanted to talk to the psychiatrist about my medications.  I was feeling really unhappy about the Clozapine and its side effects, mainly the weight gain (not so much weight gain any more, but making it really hard to lose it) and the grogginess.  Lucky for me she agreed that since these side effects were distressing for me that they became a priority before continuing to reduce the Lamictal.  I am so pleased.  I even convinced her that I would like to do a straight over swap from Clozapine to Seroquel instead of her usual taper down approach.  Just in case, she has prescribed the Clozapine and if the substitution plan doesn’t work out, I can slowly taper off the Clozapine and introduce the Seroquel.  There will be no way that I will be doing both at the same time… both cause too much grogginess.. I would be comatose!   Ohhhhh and one more benefit of getting rid of Clozapine… eventually no more blood tests!  WOOHOO!  Damn I am so tired of them coming and taking my blood.  The bi-weekly tests will continue for about two months until we can be sure I’ve completely switched over to Seroquel.

To be very honest – it is a good thing that she agreed because I was considering going non-compliant – to not take the stupid pills because I feeling a lot more than just unhappy about the situation.. I was feeling downright pissed off!  Much better to have the psychiatrist on board.

On another note, I finally managed to snag a proper measuring tape after this week’s fiasco with the wonky measuring tape.  My friend did her measurements at the gym this morning, but I chose to bring my sheet home and taken my measurements in private… yeah… I’m shy… or maybe I was worried I wouldn’t measure up to my friend’s improvements.  Well… surprise!  I have lost inches in both my waist, hips and chest (darn it.. why does one have to lose inches there?)  This is good news … yay!  All that hard work at the gym is paying off and despite not really having lost much weight (I’ve dropped about 12 pounds) …. it would appear I have lost fat and gained muscle mass? 

So overall, a very good day for me.

I feel hyper and happy which is a markedly different feeling from hyper and restless.

Bye for now