Tag: mental illness

a little bit of everything Monday

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

A little of everything Monday

I got about 5 hours sleep. I then went to Starbucks after making a PB&J sandwich for lunch. I ordered 6 shots of espresso and a donut. I wrote a little bit before I had to leave to see my psychiatrist. I kind of left early so had like a half hour to kill. I didn’t want to check in that early so I just found a bench outside the office and wrote a little more in my journal.

The appt did not go very well. I told her about having to go through withdrawal last week because I was late in taking my pain meds and she called me an addict. I tried to correct her saying I was dependent but it fell on deaf ears. She kept repeating addict and it make me hurt so bad. I seriously didn’t expect this from someone I have known nearly 25 years. She was being ignorant but it hurt none the less. I vented to my support group about it. I would school her later.

After the appt, I went to the Sprint store to change my name now that I have changed my license. It took maybe 10 mins. Crap. I still had like 2 hours before I had therapy. I went to a Starbucks by my therapist’s office and just ordered hot water for tea. I made Earl Grey. I waited for it to cool so I wouldn’t burn myself. The water was wicked hot. I wrote in my journal about what my psychiatrist had said. I then posted to a Facebook pain group if they had any information about the difference between addiction and dependence. The bathroom at Starbucks was out of order so I left to go to my therapist office. All the drinking fluids was building up and needed relieving. I just made it to the bathroom in time.

Therapy sucked. I told him about what my psych said and he said I should ask her what she meant. After discussing that, I just rambled about anything to make the time pass. I didn’t bring up mommy and daddy issues but the idiot asked me again what was my pain like. I swear he thinks I am making shit up. I told him it varies and depends on where the pain is. It is usually half my foot/ankle going outward starting about the 3rd toe. I told him I got depressed and hopeless and it was hard to keep up the mental stuff with the PT exercises the PT gave me. He said just do them. Yeah, cause it is that fucking easy. Are you serious?? He just annoyed me more than my psych ever did in all the years we worked together.

I get home and on the way, my cousin called me. He was unable to call the bank like he said he would to get information for me. Lazy ass. He said he would tomorrow. Sure, and I will win the lottery too. His mother really irked me because she called me while I was on my way to my psych appt. She wanted to know if my mother was okay. I told her she had to go to the bank, which her brother was going to take her. My mother wasn’t answering the phone. Well, maybe she was in the bathroom getting ready or taking a shit. I don’t know, I am not home. She got me fricken worried and all worked up. My psych sensed it when she saw me. I told her I would call my mother when I left as I was sure she was fine. She was. She was out and did some errands, which she obviously didn’t tell her sister. HOW DARE SHE! LOL fucking stupid bitch my aunt is. Freaks out all the fucking time over NOTHING!! I was so heated!

I get home and had something to eat before going to my room. I had a pile of mail. I brought it up to my room and then checked Facebook. The pain page responded with some links. I clicked on one and there was another link for a medical article on addiction and dependence. I opened it and read some of it. According to the article, because my pain is not adequately treated, I would have pseudoaddiction, where I watch the clock and appear “drug seeking” for relief of pain. I sent the PDF (attached to this blog APS_consensus_document here) to my psych along with saying that I felt hurt when she called me an addict. Then the tears flowed and I was a sobbing mess. It took me a good while to get composure. Then she responded and I bawled again. Fuck. She said it was not her intention to hurt me and that she didn’t want me to be dependent on the narcotics. Too late for that. And for that matter, I am dependent on my mood stabilizer, which I responded back to. I told her I didn’t want to be on opioids but the benefits outweighed the risk. I knew and accepted this just like I knew I needed meds for my mental illness. I told her the example of how I withdrew when I forgot to take my mood stabilizer for two days when my father was ill. I honestly didn’t think anything would happen but I had the same type of dizzy spell I had last week when I missed my pain med dose.

No one wants to be dependent on their meds but it happens to the best of us. I knew when I was 16 I would need to be on meds the rest of my life. There was no doubt about it. I had severe mental illness and the only way to manage it was through medication and therapy. Unfortunately, the therapy part hasn’t worked out yet. I can’t say I am cured, because I still have bouts of debilitating depression and suicidality. But lately, the pain has fucked up everything. Now I am depressed and suicidal due to a medical condition, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. And there is no fucking way to control it because it is as unpredictable as the New England weather. I don’t even have the same pain twice during a flare up. It is all fucking different as night is to day. The only type of pain that is somewhat consistent is the fucking malleolus pain and the pain that is where my outward ankle and foot merge, just under the malleolus moving toward the foot. This pain drives me up the fucking wall. I had to text the Crisis Text line last night because I needed someone to talk to at 0100. I didn’t get a “counselor” till 0200. By then, I was sleepy and hungry. I made something to eat and then I said night to the “counselor”. The whole thing was useless. She kept wanting me to do some coping skills. I kept wanting to talk about dying. She didn’t want to hear it. How is that helpful?? Next time, I just write in my journal or maybe blog and hope the cops don’t show up at my door.

The temp dropped to 32 degrees. I had to shut the window because it was flipping freezing in my room. My feet got cold as ice so had to put on thermal socks. Then I had to use the bathroom again. I figure I would take my night meds when I came back to my room. My mother wanted me to make her bed. I did. Then got tucked back to my bed only to realize I didn’t take my night meds! Fuck. My ankle didn’t like me getting up again. I quickly took them and then got back under the covers. I put on a long sleeved T shirt. If the heat kicked on, I will take it off. Shit my foot is burning right now. Neurontin time!

Oh, while I met with my psych, we discussed the drug Vimpat. I wanted to make sure there were no interactions with the Trileptal as they both work on the same sodium channel thing. Last thing I need is my sodium (blood salt) to drop. She was okay with me trying it so I emailed the neurologist to go ahead and call it in. He hasn’t so far. The script for a refill of Trileptal my psych put it, never made it to the pharmacy. I had to email her again. For some reason, it had to be reviewed by the pharmacist so it is delayed. I’ve been on this med for over 10 years. If it is not ready for pick up tomorrow, I am calling to find out why it is not ready. If I didn’t have all my meds at this pharmacy, I would switch to another one. But this one is the closest to me and has better service than Rite Aid.

Fare Thee Well

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

Fare thee well

My favorite country music artist, Mary Chapin Carpenter posted a video of this song with her dog Finn. He passed away today. Her dogs are her life as most dogs and cats are. I love this song and she always has an awesome song to go with whatever I am feeling. She is a very passionate person. I have seen her almost every time she comes to Boston. One time I traveled to another part of Massachusetts just to see her. It was an awesome concert and worth the visit. I feel bad for Mary losing her dog. She got a puppy a few months ago and I hope it gives her some comfort during her grief.

I slept for about 4 hours and when I woke up, I was hungry. It was 4 am so made a fried egg and cheese muffin sandwich. I took some Neurontin and then slept for about twelve hours. My mother called me like three times. I called her when I woke up. She said she was worried because she hadn’t seen me all day. I guess I got caught up for all the sleep I lost last week. I still feel groggy but I am okay.

My “baby” is giving me trouble. I thought a 32 GB hard drive would be big enough for all that I wanted to do. NOT. I need a bigger hard drive. I couldn’t install some software because there was no memory left. I tried to delete all the crap Dell installed but it wasn’t enough for the software. Oh well. I will have to wait. At least I have my software for DVDs so I can watch movies.

I tried looking for my M*A*S*H DVD set but it wasn’t where I thought it would be. I found some new journals and other stuff but not what I was looking for. It’s probably somewhere else. I had to move some shit when the phone company came to fix my modem. It’s probably in one of those piles. I got rid of some stuff. Unfortunately, I ended up causing an avalanche on my bookcase. The stuff that was on top all fell. I’ll fix it another time. I need to find my DVD case so I can take the DVDs that I have an store them there rather than my bookcase. I finally found my Titanic movie. Maybe I will watch that tomorrow. I do have to go to my PCP’s office to pick up my scripts. I’ll make that trip tomorrow.

I really need a shower as I think the last time I showered was Sunday. Maybe I will before bed. I’ll use my shower gel that I like. I do have to use lotion afterwards as my skin is really dry. It gets that way every time the cold weather hits. I hate it because my skin is so scaly and itchy. But that will depend on whether or not my foot is okay. It is feeling okay now but standing for 10-15 mins might flare it a little bit.

Black Friday 2017

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

Black Friday 2017

I was up in pain most of the night. I think I finally went to bed around 5ish. After 3, I was checking my bank account for the deposit that I should have had. It usually comes in around 0330. By 0430, nothing was in. I just assumed it was because yesterday was a holiday. When I woke up around 11, I was reading twitter and my bank had posted a tweet saying they were having trouble with direct deposits. D’oh. I was hoping to have my deposit later today, which did happen. Now I can pay my bills and be poor come Monday.

My mother made cherry pie and that was all that interested me. I didn’t want leftovers, just pie. My sisters and brother in law went up to New Hampshire for the weekend. Before leaving, my brother in law told me to feed the fish and cats outside and to take the recycle bin to the driveway. I fed the fish. The recycle bin was on the porch so they must have come before they left. I wasn’t going to feed the feral cats. I’ll feed them in the morning when I get up.

I am so tired from pain. My foot still is hurting me despite being in bed most of the day. I was tempted to make an appt with my doc but I don’t think there is anything that can be done. I was just feeling so hopeless. I emailed my psychiatrist. I told her how rotten I felt and how I read the radiology report of my bone scan. All week, the top of my foot has hurt really bad and trying to move the ankle the way it should hurts like hell.

Tuesday, I see my PT. I am not going to go to the pain program she wants me to go to. Hell, I am not sure I even want to be in PT anymore. I am seeing the brace clinic Tuesday night. I really don’t know what to expect from them. Hopefully, they can give me something to immobilize my ankle when it hurts like this as well as something that keeps weight off it.

hodgepodge 999

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

Hodgepodge 999

My foot is keeping me up so my brain is thinking of things that is making it harder to sleep. Tonight’s thoughts are centered around my ex-ex-girlfriend. We are no longer friends because she said she wanted to “jump my bones” when she sees me next summer. The last time we talked by phone which was more than a few weeks ago, she told me her neighbor, a male, had raped her a couple of times and they also had consensual sex. She got upset that night we talked because this neighbor and her got into an argument so she cut herself pretty bad. She has a lot of mental health issues, her deepest one is being repeatedly used as a sex toy by her father. I think that this along with her bipolar disorder has made her a sex addict. She wasn’t getting the affection from her neighbor anymore, so she cut. It upset me, not because she cut, but because she was having relations with a male. I was a female when I met her. She was out as a lesbian. We had relations for about two years. She was my first love.

I had started to fall out of love for what reason, I am not sure. She is very self-centered, always putting herself first. Whenever I was having a hard time, she ignored me and then told me her problems. Often times she would text me and then shower or fall asleep. In the meantime, I had no idea why she wasn’t responding. It hurt that she didn’t respect my feelings of whatever I was going through and truly couldn’t be there for me. She tried a few times, but she really didn’t know how to be supportive. Or she would say something supportive and then move on to her problems. She has MS and is prone to falling. One time we were texting and she told me she fell. I didn’t hear back from her till the next day. I was going out of my mind about what was happening to her. Sometimes she would end up in the ER because she needed stitches. Why would you tell someone you fell and then not respond afterwards with what is happening?? I was getting annoyed because this happened more than once. A few times she was in an emotional crisis and then I wouldn’t hear from her for hours. She fell asleep from the meds she took, usually her klonopin (not lethal dose). It was emotionally draining. I loved her but I didn’t like being used as this support and not having it returned. She said she loved me all the time but I was questioning that love because she said it so easily yet I felt they were just words she was saying without no meaning behind it.

After I found out about the neighbor and she was still “friends” with him, I couldn’t stand it. How could you continue to see someone that 1) takes advantage of you and 2) rapes you because they got high?? I started being distant with her. On our last contact, after she said she wanted to “jump my bones”, I told her I didn’t want to see her next summer. We had other words but I don’t remember what they were and I deleted her messages. We didn’t speak for 2 days and this was because I was in a flare with my ankle/foot. I pretty much was in bed and sleeping for those days. She didn’t text me at all and I didn’t care. But she was upset that I didn’t text her. I didn’t fall for the bait this time. She called me a freak and said to delete messages from her. So I blocked her number on my phone and on Facebook. I didn’t say anything else other than to thank her for calling me a freak. I then said bye. If she has tried to contact me, I have no clue. I still care about her even though I don’t love her. I’m just worried that she cut herself again with ending our relationship. I know that isn’t my fault, if it happened. I still think about her. I need to stop thinking about her. But my brain is still analyzing the situation.