Tag: mental illness

Psychache scale

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, depression, mood disorders, suicide, suicide attempt

hello,

I am probably breaking the rules but this is my version of the Holden psychache scale that he used in this paper Development and preliminary validation of a scale of psychache.
By Holden, Ronald R.,Mehta, Karishma,Cunningham, E. Jane,McLeod, Lindsay D.
Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, Vol 33(4), Oct 2001, 224-232

I modified it from the original to suit my needs. You can get the original scale by getting the article. Here is also a blog I wrote on the research article (click here)

PS blank

Feeling horrible and slept all day

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

Feeling horrible and slept all day

I woke up around med time. My alarm went off at 8 instead of 9. Something is wrong with the app because it is not going off continuously to annoy me to get up. Just has the little sound and then nothing for the next 15 minutes or so. I don’t know what to do and am afraid of uninstall/reinstall thing. I would hate to input all my meds again. There are really just three that need alarms the rest are just as needed, when I need to keep track of when I last took them. I need to get in touch with the developer and see if they have an advice.

I took my meds and then used the bathroom but forgot to brush my teeth. I was kind of in a weird state where I really had no idea what I was doing there. I went back to bed, thinking I would sleep for a few hours and then I would get up to eat and make cookies. Did not happen. I woke up around 2pm after a weird dream about the Obamas and the White House. I don’t remember more than that. I used the bathroom and then brushed my teeth. I made some graham cracker cereal and found we were out of milk. That meant no cookies. I texted my sister to pick some up on her way home. My mother called to keep me in the kitchen until my niece came home so I could let her in the house.

I had coffee but it didn’t help. I went back to my room and succumbed to the sleepies. I thought I would sleep a couple hours but I slept until my night med time. Fuck. I wanted to order some steak tips but I think laying down so soon after eating the cereal messed up my stomach. Looks like the cereal is the only thing I am going to eat today. I feel horrible that I slept all day again today. Seems that on days I don’t have anything to do, like go to an appointment or something, I sleep. Granted the day after I have therapy, I am tired because I am usually up all night, but this time I wasn’t. I slept through most of the night at a decent hour. I just can’t force myself to stay up. I just feel like sleeping is better, but I am wondering how much of it has to do with depression and how much has to do with not sleeping and being in pain. I sent an email to my psych that the CRPS has spread to my whole foot. I am not happy about it. If you compare my left and right, the left is more swollen than the right and there is some redness at the arch. I hate this! I thought it was just because of the flare I had Monday but now doesn’t seem to be the case as my foot is still sensitive.

I am not liking all this sleeping. I don’t want to get in the habit of sleeping all day because I have the risk of being up all night and that is a bad thing for triggering my bipolar. I already had a few being up 15+ hours. I haven’t made it to 24 and I hope I never do. Closest I have ever come is 22 straight hours. I hate feeling terrible and after I had used the bathroom and went back to my room, and nearly fell because I almost lost my balance taking my slippers off, my foot then exploded in pain. Now I am not sure I am going to sleep again and I am pissed I woke up. Just let me fall into the death nap.

I have been worried about my eating, or lack thereof. I just did some calculation to figure out how many I need just to maintain my weight. But the problem lies with being male or female. If I am a male, it is over 1700. If I am a female it is 1600. I am a male but I am transgender and currently still in a female body so I am all fucking confused. I feel like I should go with the male because fuck, I am a male but yet in my medical records I am female. Fuck. I just am so fucking confused about this shit. I know it is a technical thing, and we are just talking 100 calories. That could be a protein bar, give or take. I know I have not been eating anything close to 1000 calories the last few weeks. Yet I haven’t lost that much weight. I maybe lost 1 pound or so in a week. And I have lost 8 pounds when I wasn’t eating anything, just a thing of ramen noodles for the day. The website I was at said that fasting like I have been aka not eating, can lead to gallstones. Great. Always wanted those, NOT. It is because I am breaking down muscle instead of fat. So I am losing muscle instead of fat. Lovely. I keep telling my doctors this but do they fucking listen?? No. do they order tests to see if my vitamins are okay and shit like that? No. so I could be malnourished and they don’t care about it. I hate taking vitamins and they aren’t cheap. I might take one here and there. But after a while, the gummy gets hard because the bottle was opened and air made them dry. I like gummies better than pills. But I am not going to buy a shit load of vitamins. I had the B vitamins that were sublingual. Those were good but then I stopped because I forgot to take them, and because they were under the tongue, you couldn’t put them in a med box. Plus they had red coloring that came off so if they stayed on your hand or some place, the red wore off. I hated this. I have no idea where I put them. I know I had a bottle on my bureau as I had two. But no idea where they are now. I wish there was a medical person I could talk to about this, someone that fucking cared about this shit and didn’t pass me off because they didn’t have a clue. I don’t even know who to see. Then I think of the trouble to figure it out and I don’t want to do anything. Add in the depression and nothing gets done about it. Fun. So I want to lose weight but no clue how to do it and yet I am barely eating because my appetite is fucked up. Just hope for my birthday, I have my pizza. Hope I eat more than one slice.

When you want to sleep but your brain has a million things to think of so you write a blog!

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

When you want to sleep but your brain has a million things to think of so you write a blog!

I had a good appointment with my psychiatrist today. We went back and forth over what might be the cause of my sodium being low or rather me feeling crummy (she too, doesn’t think it is causing me to feel fatigued and crummy, UGH). I am a medical mystery. Well last night I got pissed off because no one was listening and decreased my damn oxcarb! I felt a little better today but I am still so fucking tired from going out. I left early and the fucking bus was late which threw me in a tizzy because I can understand the bus being late once or twice, but all the fucking time now and I have no idea why!! And the T doesn’t fucking care or sends you alerts AFTER the bus comes to the stop taking you to your destination.

Anyway, my psych doesn’t mind decreasing the oxcarb. I knew she wouldn’t. She isn’t a drug pusher like some docs. She wanted to lower my Invega but I am really on the lowest dose and it is an extended release pill so I can’t cut it. I am not taking much Ativan. Other than my breakthrough meds, I am not taking many meds during the day to cause me to be drowsy. I think the espresso carries me through until it wears off and then I crash. The sucky part of all of this is that I am not seeing my therapist and I HATE this part of the feeling crummy deal. I have to cancel Monday because this isn’t an easy fix. I might be able to see him Wed. She wants me to go down to 600/day by the next time I see her. She wants me to lower the dose in like 4 days but I am waiting a week until going down further because I know my body and I don’t want to go through withdrawal. Trust me, I went through it a few times and it isn’t pleasant! I am going to do some adjusting on my part as I will need to take it twice a day. It was a problem before as I wasn’t taking things twice a day and I would always miss my dose so I just took it at night. I was at 600 mgs until about 4 years ago when the hypomania came back and I had to take the 1200 mg. Now that I am taking meds in the morning, it won’t be that big a deal unless my pain makes me miss a dose but I will just take it when I get up because withdrawal sucks!! So I will have plenty of Trileptal for a while.

My pain has been mumbling most of the day today. I thought I was going to flare when I got home as while I was walking, my ankle starting hurting really bad. But nothing bad happened so maybe the AFO was irritating it or something. It is still early in the evening though so pain o’clock hasn’t come yet.

Don’t know if I mentioned this in yesterday’s blog but my barber was telling me his 4 year old son is carrying around my book and asks that it be read to him every day. I thought that was so cute so I bought him Anne Wheaton’s kid’s book called Piggy and Pug. It is a very cute story about adopting pets. I think that will be better suited.

I am so tired. It will be another hour before I can take my night meds. Hope the Ativan in it calms my fricken brain! Nothing worse than thinking a million things and not sleeping. It is going to be really cold as the temp is going to drop during the night. There might be snow this weekend, then will be 50 degrees for a day just to tease us then back to cold. I hope that by Tuesday I am feeling a little better. I don’t know if the 1L restriction is still in place or not. But seeing as I haven’t moved my bowels in a week, that isn’t happening until I shit again. I feel so uncomfortable. I probably will feel better when I go. I thought I was going to go today but it was a false alarm. I was going to take some more Miralax when I came home but once I got into my bed after changing, I didn’t want to go back downstairs and tried the nap thing that failed! I took 3 fiber pills so I am hoping for either colon blow or a big dump followed by colon blow. I’d be happy with a little dump at this point just so I know something is moving!

Lots of things and crashing after

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, Chronic pain, chronic physical pain, CRPS, depression, medical, mood disorders, psychache, transgender

Lots of things and crashing after

I woke up around 5 for some reason that I don’t remember now. I think I was in pain as I remember taking a pain med. I was hoping this was not going to cause me to be in bed all day as I really wanted to change my sheets. I fell back to sleep and hoped for the best.

I woke up with my med alarm blaring. I felt okay. I definitely needed coffee. I was hungry. That was the first time in three weeks I woke feeling hungry. Maybe my sodium was back up. I still feel better but kind of sluggish. I went downstairs after stripping the bed and then used the bathroom. I made breakfast and coffee. My mother wanted a cup so I made her one as well. I found this transgender article and was totally confused by it because it is not how I felt. But I decided to leave it where it was so I could read it later. After I ate, I put the throw in the dryer and then the blanket in the washer. I just had the sheets to do.

I went back upstairs to find my sheets. Before I put them on, I duct taped the corners of the top of my mattress so the damn foam topper wouldn’t go anywhere. I hoped anyway. My back was giving me grief. I had taken a shower before I got upstairs. I had shaved, too. I was sweating by the time I wrestled with the sheets. I was trying to even out the top sheet I didn’t bother to tuck it in. Then I got the comforter and the pillowcase. I put the comforter on and the pillowcase on the pillow. I couldn’t find the extra pillow case for the pillow that goes between my knees. I said fuck it. My back was killing me, I was wiped out, I felt like I was going to pass out and I did. I slept for three fricken hours. I guess the sodium isn’t as high as it should be. I know it is getting there as I am kind of feeling better. The big test is that I am getting my groceries tomorrow. If I survive that without sleeping for the day, I guess I am doing better. If I sleep all day, then I am still fatigued from the low sodium.

I read this article https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/24/opinion/sunday/vaginoplasty-transgender-medicine.html. And it was a MTF. I honestly have not come across too many trans that feel this way. I certainly have never felt this way but I am not going to have phalloplasty. It is a complex surgery and I just do not want to go through with it. I just want to be flat chested and grow a beard. The things raised in this article scare me because I don’t ever want my hormones to be in jeopardy. I know that losing my breasts has to be dealt with. I have thought about it so many times. I mean, I am sort of attached to them. I wish they never were formed so I didn’t feel that way but now that they are sort of shrinking slowly, I am glad. It was a huge part of my dysphoria to have breasts when I didn’t want them. I know eventually, I will have to have top surgery and getting a good surgeon is key because I have heard horror surgeries where the surgeon doesn’t care and just does a bad job. Granted this was just in the UK, but I am hoping to find one in the Boston area that is considerate and doesn’t cause nerve damage or anything. That is further down the road as I am not there yet. I don’t know if I can talk about this with my therapist or not. He doesn’t seem to know a lot about transgender and I am kind of pissed because on the website I found him at, said that he did. I am not sure if I will have to find another therapist to deal with the dysphoria or not.

This female is having doubts about getting surgery to have a vagina implanted. I don’t understand why she would go through something like that if it is going to cause her more emotional pain than what she is already in. And I still cannot believe a surgeon would do it when there are doubts. I am not saying my transition has made me bone fide happy, but it has relieved a lot of the tension I was feeling not going through the transition and having to wait so much from the LGBT clinic and then I met my doctor and she is all like when do you want to start. Like seriously, in one visit, I am on hormones. I understand the LGBT taking things slow and working things out but I have known the last ten fricken years, maybe more than that, that I am NOT a fucking female. I am a fucking male. I hate getting misgendered! It really drives me crazy and Microsoft doesn’t recognize misgendered. How fucking lovely.

I have my shot this week. I am excited because I get to do the selfies and post a little bit about changes. Honestly, other than thicker leg hair, there hasn’t been much since last week. I keep getting complimented on the facial changes but I don’t see them week to week. Sure from day 1 to now I do but I think if I lose weight, it will be more prominent. I think I have lost some weight since I haven’t been eating regularly with the whole sodium thing. I really have just been sleeping a heck of a lot.

I see my psychiatrist this week. I am glad because I miss seeing her. I hate these monthly meetings but she is always a page or email away if I really need her. I don’t know what they are going to do about my mood stabilizer. I see my pcp Wed to get my blood redrawn to check levels. Then go from there. I really hate that I have to taper my drug but I don’t know if it is just to taper to a lower dose or off the medication entirely. And I am starting to feel that woozy feeling again, which means I am going to crash soon. I am over a 1,000 words. So I guess that is good for the day. God I can’t wait till this is resolved!