Posted by Jay_Bravest_Face on July 23, 2007, at 23:30:53
Well...I had a HORRIBLE experience today. Even after cutting down to .5 mg tab of Risperdal, my blood sugar reading was 360 (American) 20 (Canadian) this morning!!!! That was four hours after I ate a bowl of Cherrios!!
So, I knew this was no f*cking around with, and my Dad drove me to the hospital. (In case I a) went into a diabetic coma, or b) suddenly died..) When I got there, my blood pressure was WAY off the charts (likely because of my blood sugar.) I used to be able to just stop an atypical antipsychotic if blood sugar probs arose, and they would go back to normal. But, because of my years of use of these things, I am now *officially* diabetic. I did NOT know these things caused permanent diabetes. If I lived in the U.S., I'd sue.
But....there was a reason those atyp antipsycs made me feel SO yukky and horrid. Just tonight I removed them from my med bag and flushed them down the toilet. Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Seroquel. So, the doc asked me if I wanted to try an alternative. I have been reading about some new studies that are arising that are comparing long term use of some of the more popular older 'typical' antipsychotics(in smaller doses) and the new 'atyps'. You can read quite a bit about it on crazymeds.org So, I am trying out 5mg of Haldol for a week, and am only going to take it at times when I feel the very bad rapid cycling getting ahold of me, and for acute insomnia. I even got some cogenten just to be safe to counteract side effects.
It's interesting, because I've been reading on other boards that numerous people have been using small amounts of the 'typical' antipsycs. Loxapine was one I saw a few times...Haldol to...even as a prn. I WILL say that, after now about 3 days off the atypical antipsycs, I feel SO much better. Much more alive. And I am STILL on Prozac, Remeron, Nortriptyline, Clonazepam, and Topomax.
So...what do you folks think? I sat in a hospital chair for almost 9 hours today. I felt a bit uncomfortable, yes, but I wasn't all angry, or upset, or sad, or feeling hurt, or anything. I just got some magazines to read, and I appreciated the hard work the staff where doing.
I really welcome your comments..
Jay
poster:Jay_Bravest_Face
thread:771542
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070719/msgs/771542.html