Posted by Lyrical13 on January 1, 2004, at 9:17:32
In reply to Re: Effexor XR - Some Advice Desperately Needed.HELP. » Gummybear, posted by Zellie on December 31, 2003, at 8:24:55
OK..this is a 2-part response to several messages. First re: twitching. My legs usually twitch/jump in the evening..I just can't keep them still and it's very annoying. But it seems to happen regardless of whether I have taken my meds yet. (I take 225mg Effexor, 50mg Seroquel at bedtime and 100mg Synthroid in AM) It usually happens when I'm laying on the couch vegging out and winding down around 10PM or so. But I've had this leg twitching stuff before when I wasn't on my meds. It seemed to happen when my blood sugar was out of whack. So I don't know for sure if it has to do with the meds or not. When it was happening before these meds, it was once in a blue moon. Now it is almost every night. But once I take meds and go to bed, no problems. Anyone have any thoughts about this? It seems to have started since I started Seroquel. I have been on Effexor for a year and just started Seroquel a couple months ago.
Now, re: joey's doc. I hope you are successful in finding a new doc. I just went through a similar experience and changed docs and am SOOOO happy that I did. I had my previous doc kind of by default. I was working with a doc (we'll call him Dr. T.) for a few years and then he moved to the other side of the state. He gave me a list of all the docs in my town..I asked him to narrow it down to the 1 or 2 that he thought I would work well with. Dr. M. was one that he recommended. So I started with Dr. M. in fall of 2001. He was a nice doc when things were going well and he did get me off Serzone (the 'zone' part of that med was accurate for me...) and onto Effexor which has been wonderful for me. But when I was having a crisis he wasn't very responsive. He was very inconsistent in getting back to me. He would talk to me on the phone but sometimes he called back right away..sometimes it was 3 days. That's not good enough when you're in a crisis. I'm sure all of you know that when you're feeling desperate and falling apart an hour can feel like an eternity. His voicemail said go to the ER or call the psych nurse if it's an emergency..well I didn't think it was that much of an emergency that I needed to go to the ER...I live in a small town. everyone knows everyone else's business...I really didn't feel like entering gossip central for the way I was feeling at that time, but I definitely needed assistance. All I needed was for him to tell me how to adjust my meds to feel better. That shouldn't require an ER visit.
Well, I put up with it for the first major crisis in fall of 2002. I couldn't get in to see him for a month and I was falling apart at work. I missed 10 days of work between Sept and Dec. My original doc (Dr. T) would have squeezed me in for an appt within a few days if I was having such a crisis. This doc couldn't even consistently return a phone call. Well, this fall when I started having problems I decided enough was enough. In aug the depression started and I had an appt within a couple weeks so I just went to the appt and we increased the effexor from 75 to 150. It helped for a while but as soon as work started (I work at a school) the anxiety went through the roof. He said to take Attivan (0.5 to 1mg every 6 hrs) which helped some. 3 weeks after upping Effexor dose I was falling apart at work. He said to give it another week. So I did. fAlling apart even worse. Crying jags at work, difficulty being alone at all, starting to having suicidal thoughts...he said "give it another week" again. I was saying I needed to up the dose. Now, I am soemone who is usually very cautious about meds and wants to be on as low a dose as possible. I rarely ask to up the dose. That I was begging to up the dose should have clued him in if he was paying attention. He was very condescening to me on the phone saying that 150 was the dose that worked last year and it should still work and that time of year shouldn't matter (for the past 10 years my worst time has been sept thru jan. 150 was a great dose from jan thru april. after that 75 worked wonderfully...got a little hypomanic around march..but that's another story)
Anyway, I called him back the next day, (after talking to him on the phone on a tues eve and he's being condescending and saying to just give it another week...I'm sobbing uncontrollably and he's saying "wait") Wed I called back and of course he wasn't available so I left a voicemail saying that I had talked to my husband and close friends who had seen how well I did on 150 last year and I wasn't nearly that good right now and i was trying to be pro-active, shouldnt' have to have a total breakdown before I got help and that I felt it was time for a medical intervention..time to increase Effexor. He didnt' call back for 3 DAYS...In fact, I showed up at his office with my husband on Fri afternoon. All of a sudden his tune changed and upping the Effexor was a good idea...but he thought I should enter the day treatment program. At this point I was already trying to set up an appt with another doc. When he saw we weren't going for the day treatment thing (I really didnt' trust him or respect him at this point...why waste my time and miss all that work plus it would bill as a hospitalization....and the whole small town thing again...) All of a sudden he was available for weekly appts. Where the heck were weekly appts last year when I was falling apart and missing so much work?!!!! I agreed to weekly appts and we upped my meds. To make a short story long..... I changed to Dr. Z within a few weeks...just bided my time with weekly appts with Dr. M. until I could get set up with a new doc and make sure I felt comfy with new doc....Best move I ever made in my life. It's hard to make a big change like that when you are in a crisis but if your gut says that you aren't getting the treatment you think is appropriate, your gut is probably right. I should have listened to my gut a year ago.
Dr. Z. explained chronic major depressoin and treatment options to me...augmentation etc. Laid out all my options and pros and cons of various meds and then asked me what I wanted to do. Admittedly, it was info overload but he was cool with me taking a week to think about it. When I came back and told him what i'd like to try, he gently pushed me in a direction that I was a bit wary about (Seroquel...he wanted me to try it short-term because it would boost the Effexor and get me feelign better quickly..plan was that I also start Synthroid..it would take a while to get to a level..once it was up, then stop Seroquel...this plan has since changed...at last appt based on info I gave him he now thinks I'm BP2 and not GAD/depression...funny I brought up same concerns with Dr. M last spring..he labeled it hypomanic but blew it off!....if he had expressed concern like Dr. Z. and responded with approp treatment I could have saved us hundreds of dollars in spending sprees.......
Anyway, when I see Dr Z in a couple weeks we plan to d/c Seroquel and I think Synthroid also and start Lamictal.. Eventually will start backing off slowly from Effexor...his predicted end result med combo is either Lamictal alone or with a low dose of Effexor for depression aspect. (we talked about this at dec appt but I didn't want to mess with my meds over the holidays and be all whacked.
HOpefully Joey can get with a different doc. It doesn't sound like your current doc is very responsive. Shouldn't be blowing you off esp when you're having such scary side effects. BTW I only missed a total of one day of work this fall. (2 half days)Big difference.
Good luck.
L13
poster:Lyrical13
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031231/msgs/295314.html