Med Update, and I Don't Know...

[gizmo]

I'll be honest with you, I feel a bit like ol' Andy, cause the pdoc is tweaking my zyprexa to see if I can get med relief without akathesia. WTF?

I don't get it. I was on 20mg for two months in September/October 08 with no problems, and it worked great on my mania. I have this big, WEIRD mania (all restlessness and irritation and agitation and spending) and I try 20 mg and I'm crawling off the walls cause I can't sit down. So I go down to 15mg. Still can't get calmed down.

So I go down to 10mg. Doing fine on the akathesia front, but not so hot on the mood front. Just about made my daughter cry this week over a homework paper cause I was frustrated (don't I feel like world's shittiest mom) and I'm still pretty agitated about stuff. Did I mention the spending???

So the doc wants to up the zyprexa, using zydis (my suggestion on the zydis, thanks Andy) and see if the feeling subside. I asked for Cogentin (never took it before) and he gave me a script. I'm taking 15mg for a few days, then bumping up to 20mg.

But I hate this tweaking shit. I hate messing with the akathesia. Why did I get it now, and not before? Why is my mood still altered? Or is pissed off and unfocused just the new me?

What the doc really wants to do is dope me up with enough benzos so that I won't notice I'm feeling this way. But I won't take them like I'm supposed to, and I flat out told him I wouldn't take klonopin 3x's a day if my life depended on it (too many dependency issues/just my baggage). It's bad enough that I have to take 2mg of xanax at a time to get calmed down because I'm that accustomed to it - I don't need to take it every day.

[pinkiemarie]

2 mgs of xanax at a time? Shit! I don't blame you for not wanting to add in a boatload of klonopin too. It's so frustrating dealing with the med tweaking until you find something that works...and god forbid you wake up one day and suddenly it doesn't work again. Good luck

[SashaSue]

I think med changes are to be expected when you change doctors. I don't think it was unreasonable of him to have wanted to try lower doses of zyprexa before adding a new med for the akathisia.

Sometimes meds effect us differently at different times and dosages, for no comprehensible reason. Sometimes akathisia just shows up after you've been taking something for a while, which sucks. It's not so unusual that you'd have been find on 20mg zyprexa at one point, but weren't later on. Annoying, but not that weird.

Your mood's probably still off because your meds have been so up and down. You probably need 20mg of zyprexa for a while to sort it out.

[Pamito]

If you can tolerate the akathisia with the use of benzos, then that's good. I have tried the beta-blocker propranolol for it, unfortunately i got a rash and flushing from it so it had to be stopped. Maybe that's an option?

I am often plagued with the friggin akathisia (see my recent post), and I know how unbearable it can be. Don't suffer in silence if it's a real problem. Tell your Pdoc that you cannot tolerate it. Taking benzos all day can submerge the akathisia, but it doesn't cure it, and at least from my experience, benzos actually bring on depressive symptoms in me.

I hope it resolves for you soon.

[gizmo]

Well, I'm only on day 2 of the zyprexa zydis 15mg and I'm already unable to sleep because the restless legs are BAAACCCKKK. Shit. Of course I didn't fill the cogentin yet, ain't got the money to until Wednesday. So I guess I'm back down to 10mg for now.

The bad thing is that I was much calmer today than I've been in quite awhile. Does the cogentin really work on akathesia and stuff like restless legs?

[Thomas]

Cogentin works well for me with tardive diskenesia (Sp?). I take 10 mg. at bedtime and 5 mg. when I get to work. The one bad thing about it is that I can't drive well for 3-4 hours after taking it (it makes it hard for me to stay in my lane).

Tommy