Moving up to 1500 mgs of Depakote ER didn’t work for me.  I think it wasn’t mixing well with the additional blood pressure meds they put me on.  I couldn’t get out of bed because I was so sleepy!

I was really down about the blood pressure issue for a couple of days,  but everything is looking up now except for the sex life.  

Still, life is better than it was four to six months ago. 

Fibroymyaliga is doing well.  I was a little stiff this morning because Spring in the midwestern U.S. has been getting hit with a cold wave.  Snow flurries in the air today.

The doc thinks she will be able to lower my Zoloft a little during our next visit in April.

Overall, I’m feeling pretty good.  

I did get a little depressed last evening over disgust that my regular m.d. can’t get my blood pressure down. 

When do you sense a crash is coming on?  Will it be gradual or bang?  I’m new to this world.  Help me out, please.

   In my neck of the woods, Spring has sprung and everything is beginning to bloom.  Every morning I wake up with my nose running.  For a person with chronic health problems that really sucks!

    I go to bed with my nose congested.  Makes life hard when you have sleep apnea and you depend on a cpap machine for sound sleep.   Sleep, or the lack of it, is one of my triggers in by rapid cycling of my atypical bipolar disorder.  

    In addtion, if I don’t sleep there’s not only bipolar, but the fybromyalgia flares up. 

    I can’t seem to find any over the counter antihistamines that won’t collide with my other meds.

    I’m finding my obsessive-compulsiveness is an obvious trigger in my moods.  Again, it appears Zoloft and Depakote are my rescuers at this point.

So, how did I survive the mood swings (mostly gutter wrenching lows), PTSD and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and surive?  I refer to it as just getting by day-by-day.  My mission from the time I got up in the morning (if I got out of bed at all) was to to slowly take whatever the day offered until It was time to go to bed.

I worked three of the four years until everything crumbled one last time.  After that, it involved watching a lot of television, and enduring many dark thoughts and lonely hours, along with not wanting to go any where or deal with any body.

It took the proper diagnosis from my psychiatric team to pinpoint my exact problems.  I can’t say enough good about them. 

I know work is out of the picture ever again.   My life has to be refocused on the time I have left in this world and enjoy it with my family.

Yeah, I’ve already had a few down days, but for me this Depakote has been amazing.  That added with Zoloft (ocd) and Lunesta for sleep, I’m seeing more sunshine in my life–not those black days.

When I started taking Depakote, the pharmacy said not to take Mobic any more for my fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis.  The doc has told me to continue to take it pointing out that the small risk is nothing compared to the greater good it will bring me.

Back in for another blood draw this morning, the first since I’ve been taking Depakote ER. We’ll see how that turns out in a few days.

I’m still feeling great mentally with no rapid cycling.   No problems with PTSD in the way of any flashbacks.  That was the big trigger for setting off the Bipolar phases.  The OCD seems under control with the Zoloft. 

My wife continues to say, “Welcome Back!”  T

Mood-wise I’ve been feeling great.  Physically it has not been the greatest.  The doc took me off Mobic for the fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis because of it not mixing well with Depakote.

I go to my family physician today and hopefully she will be able to prescibe something new. 

My wife has noticed a major change in how I act.   She keeps saying, “welcome back.”  It has been a long four years since the derailment of my life because of Post Traumtic Stress Disorder.  I just kept getting more depressed and it was a struggle for me to get through the day.  I was having “ups” but they were happening in short bursts and always seemed to result in me sinking to a new low.  

I now believe I’m on the right path….giving life a whole new meaning! 

  My bouts with depression  up until 2003 were never severe or did they take away from ability to earn a living.  But everything changed when a tornado lifted my vehicle off the ground.  I was diagnosed with PTSD and never recovered.  Emotionally, I was in quick sand and going under.  My ability to work ceased.  My body hurt from Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatique.

  My family doctor was treating my depression and working with a psychologist.  It wasn’t until a visit with a practing psychiatric nurse led to the Bipolar Disorder–Atypical diagnosis.  She had me on Zoloft for the OC and added the depakote.   As I mentioned earlier, my life has changed for the better.

      Still, I’m afraid to come out of the closet on my diagnosis.  My psychiatric nurse says 50-percent of the people already have you classified when you say BP.  The other 50-percent won’t understand or accept it.  To me, that means I’m screwed.