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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by TemporarilyBob on October 26, 2012, at 1:30:52
So I go into my county's support services center for a first meet with a pdoc on my team. Tells me he's read the ER report and the intake report from my first visit there along with the on-call pdoc's report from that time so don't worry about having to retell the whole heart-wrenching story. Asks a few questions for clarification, asks how the clonazepam and nortrip have been working, then goes into the meat of what he has to say. About how manic episodes triggered by medications get people classified as unipolar depressive with substance-induced mania, or something like that.
But that's not him.
That the research says yes, bipolar depression really IS far more complex than what we understand about bipolar I or II and may affect 2-4 times as many people as gets diagnosed, forget what the typical diagnostic categories are since they're way behind the latest research. Nice living in a university town with one of the top med schools, it is.
Oh, and yes, I'm most likely one of those long misdiagnosed people. And that for a long time the medication I was receiving was probably making the situation worse and not better. That it wasn't all in my mind. So to speak.
You know, I read "An Unquiet Mind" and was always jealous of Kay Jamison because I have to be pumped with SSRIs to be toxic enough to be "happy" ... I have a type of bipolar disorder that does not typically involve mania: it involves depression and anxiety. (LOL ... I'm not only bipolar, but I have the "wrong" kind of bipolar....) So it was suggested to me seven years ago. And so I now have a much more firmly stated, research-backed diagnosis that doesn't make me feel like some web-hopping self-diagnoser that drives doctors with years of education and experience nuts. I'm finally seeing someone who says, "Yeah, minds or brains or nervous systems like yours actually do exist, and we've missed it for a long, long time. And we still don't quite understand it or agree about it, so bear with us if you can.
"And by the way, here's some Seroquel and it should work really well with your Nortriptyline. And since you're unemployed, you should be able to get it free. Just reach for carrots and not chocolates when the cravings get to you."
There's just something so nice about having someone who is supposed to know so much better than you actually BELIEVE you ... even if the thing they believe about you is terrifying in and of itself. Or maybe because it is.
Posted by Phillipa on October 26, 2012, at 10:24:06
In reply to So how's this for confirmation?, posted by TemporarilyBob on October 26, 2012, at 1:30:52
Nice way of putting it "wrong kind of bipolar". Seriously free meds? You and Phil should have a talk. Phillipa
Posted by TemporarilyBob on October 26, 2012, at 10:49:07
In reply to Re: So how's this for confirmation? » TemporarilyBob, posted by Phillipa on October 26, 2012, at 10:24:06
> Nice way of putting it "wrong kind of bipolar". Seriously free meds? You and Phil should have a talk. Phillipa
Yup. Free. Seriously. My pdoc told me Astra Zenica's program will qualify people with incomes as high as $40k or so if they can show need. Problem is they won't touch you if you have Medicare. I had SSDI for a couple years 7-8 years ago and not a dime since, but for some reason SS has me on the rolls for Part A, so I may need to grab a Part D plan instead.
Posted by Dinah on October 26, 2012, at 17:17:10
In reply to So how's this for confirmation?, posted by TemporarilyBob on October 26, 2012, at 1:30:52
I have had similar experiences. I hope one day soon DNA tests will help identify which medications will have a better chance of helping and which medications shouldn't be tried unless all else fails. Anything with NE is enormously bad for me, and SSRI's weren't good for me either. I wish they'd have never even given them a shot.
They know very little. But openminded doctors help them learn more all the time.
Posted by TemporarilyBob on October 27, 2012, at 10:11:14
In reply to Re: So how's this for confirmation? » TemporarilyBob, posted by Dinah on October 26, 2012, at 17:17:10
> I have had similar experiences. I hope one day soon DNA tests will help identify which medications will have a better chance of helping and which medications shouldn't be tried unless all else fails. Anything with NE is enormously bad for me, and SSRI's weren't good for me either. I wish they'd have never even given them a shot.
Amen to not giving SSRIs a shot, but when I was going through my 30 Months of Hell SSRIs were still held up as the "miracle drugs with little or no side effects!" Wish I could have had a video of me leaning hard as a could against the kitchen drawer with all the butcher and carving knives in it so I couldn't open it as my extremely argumentative, surprisingly-non-empathetic traditional-analyst-in-training ex-girlfriend was haranguing me about something minor even as I warned her verbally about my desire to grab a knife right then and there if she didn't shut up.
Or tapes of my sessions with my pdoc at the time... "I don't understand why zoloft is affecting you that way; it's not supposed to do that ... I don't know why prozac is doing that to you, it just is not in the literature ... paxil made you feel like WHAT?! Now I KNOW paxil is supposed to do the opposite of THAT ...."
> They know very little. But openminded doctors help them learn more all the time.And it was very refreshing and reassuring to have a pdoc say exactly that to me (that they know very little, that is). Reading between the lines: (1) if he hadn't said it, that he had read some of the latest literature and had formulated an opinion to work from; (2) that he did, that he is still following developments ... at the university hospital he's affiliated with perhaps even involved in research on it ... and that if something with strong evidence and multiple studies comes out he'll look to changing his views if prudent.
This is the end of the thread.
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