Posted by cubbybear on January 31, 2003, at 10:42:16
In reply to Re: In the depths of depression--please help » proud mary, posted by proud mary on January 31, 2003, at 9:19:04
This message is for all of you wonderful people who have been so supportive to me on this thread. I just wanted to update all of you on what I've decided to do. Drawing upon part intuition, part experience and just plain survival instinct, I made the decision today to be upfront with my pdoc at our session tonight and say, "I want to stop taking the Aurorix!" So I told him, and he agreed. (It would be a gradual phaseout, of course.)
The fact is: I gave this med a full month trial and I wound up feeling a billion times worse after one month than the way I felt when I started it. I know that some people who are familiar with Aurorix would encourage me to try increasing the dose, but my gut feeling was that something was terribly wrong here--it turned out to be a very bad match--and I have to shift gears into reverse.
As far as my pdoc's reactions were concerned: he fully agreed that the med had failed at regular therapeutic dose. He was not inclined to increase the dose (using the phrase "therapeutic window", which I still don't really understand). He mentioned the option of augmenting the Aurorix with a small amount of Risperdal, but I cringed when I heard the word "anti-psychotic" and want no part of it. . I don't want to start fooling around with these drug "cocktails" that so many people are monkeying around with. Besides, it woud have doubled my costs and I couldn't afford the cost of the Risperdal even if I wanted it.
My pdoc expressed some concern about how my depression will be faring in the coming weeks as I phase out the Aurorix, but all I know is, I've got to get this drug out of my system and go back to square one--which is MAO Parnate, which was my life saver for 18 years. I will hopefully get my trip plans in motion to pick it up in the U.S., hopefully in March. There's a lot more that I can add, but at least I made a decision that will hopefully lead to happines and relief before long.
poster:cubbybear
thread:137446
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030130/msgs/138541.html