Tag: disability

heart doesn’t know to stop beating

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, depression, mood disorders, suicide

Visited my father. It’s been one thing after another today. He was not in a talkative mood when we came by to see him. I think it was because he was hungry. He had half of the chicken they served for lunch and then he was full. He didn’t drink too much while we were there. My sister tried to get him to drink water but nope. He needs to undergo more testing and then he might be home Monday.

I am hurting. I am starting to think that going out today was probably not a good idea. I did a lot of walking. My ankle and foot are screaming at me. I had gone to the Square to get my Starbucks. I had a soy latte and did some writing in my journal. Then went to see my father. I was falling asleep on the train. I wanted to continue the train ride to the end of the stop rather than getting off, but I had to see my father and get a better understanding of what the plan was.

I have been feeling really depressed the past few days, more so than usual. I keep thinking of the loss of my father but I really can’t imagine it happening anytime soon. I was talking to a friend and she says I got to deal with it. I can’t right now. I haven’t thought about suicide or anything. I still don’t want to be here but killing myself is too much trouble. Soon as I can make it easy I will try though. I’m starting to feel hopeless that I am going to get better. I mean, how many depressive episodes am I to endure? My psychiatrist doesn’t think it’s a disability but I can’t work, I don’t have energy for self-care. I barely shower when I have these episodes or brush my teeth. I feel like death except I am alive. My heart just doesn’t know to stop beating. I am in chronic pain all the time, which doesn’t help the depressions because they feed off each other. I don’t know how to live anymore. I don’t want to live anymore.

I don’t think I will be visiting my father tomorrow unless my sister gives me a ride in. Taking public transportation has just been too much. I am in so much pain. I am exhausted from waiting around and then dealing with the stress of my father’s temperament. You never know if he is going to explode or not. And he wants everything done quickly. I really want my depression to be gone as quickly as it came but I have a feeling it’s going to be sticking around for sometime. I am not hopeful that the sertraline is going to help. I am still at a baby dose. I don’t increase it till Monday. Waiting is something I should be used to with this thing but I am just like my father in that I want to be better now, not later. Unfortunately, that’s not how mental illness works. With my father, he isn’t going to get better. He is going to get worse and then die. I wish I had that luxury, too.

Afraid to Write

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, depression, mood disorders

Afraid to Write

I was talking with a friend of mine tonight. Somehow we got to talking about this month being an anniversary month. She wanted to know more and it brought up some painful feelings. I told her briefly what went on and that was it, my PTSD symptoms were activated. She wanted me to write or to talk about what happened. I told her I did. But now I am afraid to write because of my fears.

My sister brought up the night about my father and my cousin a couple of days ago. It hasn’t left my mind. They were there when my father flipped out and took out his gun. Though I don’t know where they were in the house. I was in the living room trying to watch TV and failing. I don’t even remember the show that was on. I was too into what was going on around me and frighten about what would happen. Never in a million years would I think my father would become so violent as to pull a gun on someone. Never. Sure he made threats to kill someone every now and then but I never thought he would go through with it. He was an angry man and still is.

I texted my therapist that I keep having flashbacks/intrusive memories. I know she is going to want to talk about what happened. I don’t know if I ever told the story in detail and I have had so many therapists that I thought I would be over this shit by now. Why is it affected more this year than any other year? Last year it didn’t bother me, not like this. I am afraid to write about it for fear of being pulled back and not being able to get out of 1991. I was 15 then and that was a long time ago.

Pain is keeping me from sleeping. Every time I lie down, my pain increases. If I sit up, it decreases. I wish I could sleep sitting up but I can’t. My back starts to ache and I need to lie down to relieve the pressure of sitting. I just need to wait till the pain meds start to kick in and make me drowsy enough so I can sleep. I am already tired so it shouldn’t be long. But then I never know when the meds will take effect. But if I my anxiety is up, forget it, like it is now. I have no chance of falling asleep.

I haven’t written in my journal for over a week now. I don’t know why that is. I keep staring at it and it stares back. I am afraid to write because I am not sure what feelings are going to get stirred up. If I describe my flashbacks, it will be too scary and I know I will not sleep. Best to avoid that kind of shit this late at night anyways. But my night time writing has always been my solace. It helps me to sleep. I just can’t trust it tonight, not when I have to be functional tomorrow to deal with angry father. Oh and if you are reading this, he is NOT my dad. Never was and never will be. He is my father and that is how he is to be named. Though lately, I prefer to call him fuckface, but that is my calling him that. No one else can.

Jack, my angry alter, came out the other night. I don’t know what triggered him but boy was he angry. I didn’t think he was ever going to settle down. He usually is mad at my therapist but I have had contact with her since Thursday. He thinks she is tired of me. He doesn’t trust her. I don’t blame him. He has been let down by so many therapists. He wanted to talk and they just shut him down.

For good measure, I took some Ativan. That ought to hold off the intrusive stuff. I really don’t want to talk about it with my therapist. It’s too scary.

Bad Pain Day

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, depression, mood disorders

Bad Pain Day

My day has not gone off to a good start. I woke up early, around 0630, and my ankle was hurting so took some pain meds. I went back to sleep faster than I think the pain meds kicked in. When I woke up a few hours later, I thought I was ok. I wasn’t in pain. Then I got up and stood. My ankle was killing me with the pressure of standing. But I had to go pee so had to walk and go down stairs. I don’t remember if I had something to eat or not. I just wanted to get off my leg.

Some time during the night a good friend IM’d me. She needed my input on some gender “privilege” questions. I found the questions to be scary and some of them offensive at the same time. I couldn’t answer them because I didn’t know what to say. Some were yes or no answers, others required more thought. It was very difficult. There were questions about bathrooms and such. I never gave it a thought because I am still my “assigned” gender. Until I have surgery, I will use the designated bathroom for women. I can’t picture myself using a men’s bathroom with knockers on. That is just asking for trouble, in my opinion. And the doctor questions were really biased. A medical professional shouldn’t have to ask what gender you are to swab your throat because you are sick. Strep doesn’t discriminate. But if you are being swabbed because of an STD, I think you should see a different doc.

After I went through these questions, I decided to make some dinner. My ankle again didn’t like me walking on it. Course, my mother was ever so helpful in saying “maybe I twisted it”. Yea, I twisted it while I was sleeping all afternoon. It’s been almost four years that I have been out of work because of my ankle injury and she still doesn’t get it. This is why I hate bringing up my pain issues with her or telling her I am in pain because I get dumbass responses. She still thinks I need to find a doctor that will help me. I guess the 15 that I saw before I was deemed disabled weren’t good enough. If 15 doctors can’t figure out what is wrong with me, I give up, because doctor numbers 16 and 17 still don’t know what is wrong with me. I wish I could see the ankle doctor that I saw when I first hurt my ankle eight years ago. But he is no longer at the location down the street from me. He was a good doc, straight forward, no horse shitting around the bush. I think that is when my ankle started to go downhill, but I will never know. It was the other side of my ankle that I hurt, not the outer part. For the most part, I would say it has gotten better because I am not in as much pain as I was 3.5 years ago. Resting has done it’s job.

But why my ankle would bulge when I put weight on it today, I have no clue. Once I start walking it eases up but soon as I rest and start standing again, holy hell. I was going to take a shower today. It’s no longer in the works. I will try again tomorrow.

My mood kind of sucks right now, not to say it was good to begin with. I still have a heavy heart and black clouds following me. I am really tempted to restart the remeron just so I can have some relief from this darkness. But the risk of gaining weight outweighs the benefits right now. I really don’t want to regain the weight that I lost. Sertraline will be better, if I can get a hold of my pdoc. I’ll start on a baby dose and then if I tolerate it, move to 50 mg. Of course, there is no guarantee that even at 25 mg I will not become nauseated. And there is always the possibility that my pdoc will say no. It’s doubtful, but a possibility. I just priced a new SSRI called ViiBryd and it’s $50/month. If I go on sertraline, it’s, no kidding, $1.35/month, at the 25 mg dose. Sickening.

I have been sleeping most of the day because what else is there for me to do. I am very tired anyways. I wish my CBC showed that I was anemic of some kind that would explain the tiredness, but nope. All came back normal. I hate when there is nothing physically wrong with you when you feel so rotten. It’s just so annoying. Like my ankle pain. Every x-ray and MRI showed normal stuff except for some swelling in a place that wasn’t near my pain. I thought so many times of stabbing myself in my ankle to prove there was something wrong. Even if I damaged a tendon, that would at least be something rather than nothing. There is nothing I can do about the darkness that is surrounding me. There is no x-ray or MRI for that. And it sucks.

Dizziness Returns

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, depression, mood disorders

Dizziness Returns

I went to my father’s because the VNA service was coming over and I knew they would be asking all kinds of questions about his meds. Damn idiots at the hospital had about ½ his medication listed so now they need to call his PCP’s office to verify he is on all this medication. Really?? The bottles themselves don’t prove he is taking it and I am the one that dishes out his meds every damn week and you don’t think I know what my father takes?? I am so irritated. So another nurse will be coming by tomorrow to make the necessary phone calls and shit as today is Sunday and his PCP’s office just has an answering machine. The on-call doc is not going to know my father and will just say call tomorrow anyways. Useless!

While I was there, my ears starting feeling funny and then I started to feel like I did last week with the dizziness. It’s been several hours now and I can’t make the feeling go away. Every time I walk or go up the stairs, I feel worse. I hope my heart is ok and it’s just an ear thing but I feel like I am going to pass out, which isn’t a true sign of vertigo. I took my BP when I came home and it was normal. My monitor is supposed to pick up abnormal heart rhythms and it didn’t detect anything. Now in addition to calling to make appointments for my father, I have to call my doctor’s office and make an appointment for myself because this shit sucks. It can’t be because of low blood sugar because I had two meals today. I had breakfast and then ate over my father’s. I am glad that he ate because he hasn’t been eating too good the past week. I take after him in regards to eating one meal a day. I am full with lunch as I had too much of the rotisserie chicken.

The dizziness is less severe than it was on Wednesday last week. But feeling like passing out is the same. I have been trying to drink more but I don’t always think of it. I just hope they don’t want me to go to the ER for fluids or something. I hate IVs. I no longer think it’s withdrawal from my meds because I have been taking them, though I skipped the baclofen last night. It could all be because I haven’t been sleeping. I fell asleep last night around 1800 and then woke up at midnight. I didn’t go back to sleep until 0500 or so. When I woke up later this morning around 0900, I had a wicked headache and was foggy. I took some Excedrin and made coffee as well as breakfast. I finally had my black bean burger I have been craving. I like the ones I have though they are really spicy. I drank almost a full glass of iced tea with it before I had my coffee.

This whole thing is giving me anxiety with chest heaviness that I hate. And today started off as a great day because my favorite author, Lawrence Block, commented on my blog this morning. I couldn’t believe it and had to read the comment a few times to know that it was him! I was so excited to receive the comment I was texting and emailing all I knew about it. I have been reading his work for the past 25 years and just got his latest work about writing a book from start to finish as well as his new novella. I haven’t started either book yet as I am reading his older book “After the First Death”. I just hungrily love his writing and scoop up his books whenever I can.

I am hoping this week will be calmer so I can do some writing. But it all depends on my sleep and the doc appointments for myself and my father. I also hope that with the return of my appetite, the rest of the physical symptoms of depression will go away. I want the feeling of being tired all the time away as well, but I think that has more to do with my chronic pain than depression. I know that it gets worse when the depression is at its worse. It’s like walking through mud uphill. I don’t want to do anything or go anywhere. Just getting dressed is a battle or showering. I was going to take a shower today but with the dizziness, I don’t think I will. I can’t risk passing out. I can be dirty one more day.