Endless Monkeys

So. Today was my first day of really taking all of my meds and trying to really get on top of my health. Here’s what I discovered:

1) The Metformin pretty much does what it’s supposed to. However, I have noticed that I just can NOT get my damn blood sugar down overnight. I routinely wake up with a 200+ sugar when I should be hitting MUCH lower. I may start taking it right as I go to bed and see what it does. I tend to try to stop eating around 8, but I’m thinking I need to get dinner in by 7 and stop from there with a 10pm bedtime. I imagine it’s going to take about a month to get a rhythm going.

2) The Glipizide (another diabetic med) seems  ok I guess. I really can’t tell what it does, so can’t measure it’s effectiveness at the moment. I imagine this will take some time to get a feel for. I think I was on it before, but can’t recall. We’ll see what happens.

3) The Klonopin is a godsend. At the moment, it’s taking the edge off of my tics, but I am noticing that it tends to wane a bit in the afternoon (around 1 or so), but not too much. I’m taking a second dose in the evening, but may talk to my doc about trading my evening dose out for an afternoon dose. I tic less at home (obviously), so it’s not as important.

4) Similarly, the Lamictal is doing well in levelling off my mood. However, much like the Klonopin, it seems to wear off in the middle of my day. I’m currently at 100mg and will be asking my doc about possibly either bumping it up to 200 mg, or maybe doing 100 in the morning and another 100 at midday.

5) Tricor and me don’t get along. I take it and it makes me wonder if I can move my desk into the bathroom. Enough said about that.

6) The Lisinopril was bumped from 20 to 40 and it seems to be helping. I tended, in the past, to wake up with some wicked headaches that I (mistakenly) attributed to allergies. Guess it was my blood pressure all along. We’ll see.

So far it seems like this treatment path is working. It honestly brings me down a bit to know that I take so many pills (my little pill container is just crammed full). Yes, I know it’s just one of those things and I’ll eventually get over it, but it’s just the process of getting over it that’s tough. Ah well, good results are forthcoming.

That’s about it for now. I really should do a post about being on StrangeLoveLive since I’m sorta an eLebrity and all, but I’ll wait till later possibly. After all, bedtime is a-callin!

Later y’all!

Ok.

So I went to see a neurologist today to confirm/deny that I have Tourette’s. The visit went well and wasn’t really anything like I expected. Of course, having never been to a neurologist before, I really wasn’t sure what to expect.

The doctor asked a LOT of questions and seemed like he was attempting to document every word I said, which was rather nice actually. To me, it seemed like a lot of the questions he asked were mostly in trying to determine if I have just garden-variety tics, or just full-blown Tourette’s. After a bit of investigation, we did at least manage to determine that at least one of my tics, the constant attempts to pop my neck, were related to a muscle group that basically always stays tensed. Some of that is, of course, due to my currently unmanaged anxiety disorder. The doctor also said that I should consider putting a warm compress on my right shoulder as it was a trigger point for some of the muscle problems I have been having, so I’ll see if I can find some way to do that each evening. Which, interestingly, I’ll be doing as I begin taking Klonopin (generic Clonazepam). Should be interesting.

On the one hand, I do feel a bit of relief knowing that -at least for now- I don’t have full-blown Tourette’s. I’m also happy that it seems like there’s a pill that I can take for a brief period of time that will help me out. Eventually I’m wanting to get off the medication and be able to manage my conditions without them… but it’s a necessity for now.

The next step is to visit my internist tomorrow and discuss my blood sugar (consistently high in the morning, even with Metformin at night). While I’m not thrilled at the prospect, I’m reasonably sure he will ask that I go back onto the Lantus pen that I was on in the past. I won’t very much like sticking myself every night, but what else can I do if I want to ensure that my health gets back on track as quickly as possible? I’m also hoping that either my internist can prescribe me some Lamictal, or else quickly get me in touch with a psychiatrist to help get me onto the meds so we can get a handle on my Cyclothymia.

Overall, I think I’m doing slightly better. I’m still very overwhelmed because it seems like there’s so much chaos in my life. My anxiety and depression still seem out of control, I’m still dealing with some small fears surrounding my wife’s recent layoff (despite our having a plan and, to a degree, hoping for said layoff), plus I have no clue if a friendship that I have with someone is pretty much done and over with, plus some assorted other problems that have arisen due to my trying to get everything under control. Of course, I’m not wanting to sit here and do a “oh woe is me” post since I know that there’s real suffering going on in the world and, comparatively speaking, mine really isn’t all that bad. The thing is, to me at least, it does feel that bad.

At the very least, I’m happy that I have a tiny bit of extra time off tomorrow so that I can attend the OurPDX honorary Beer-and-Blog celebration tomorrow and then make my way to the Strange Love Live studios to appear on an episode of SLL (I might even let myself get on camera, who knows… what with my tics and all). I’m also happy because I’ve been keeping somewhat current on my posts for both OurPDX, as well as Deviant Advice.

I guess that’s it for now. I’ll keep y’all updated as things do.. well.. whatever they decide to do. Y’all take care!

Hey.

I can only imagine that a fair number of you have seen my Tweets lately and have come to the conclusion that I’m having a slightly tough time with life as of late. I do believe this is the unfortunate part of trying to get better, you tend to have to get worse first. I really don’t like it, but it is what it is and there’s little I can do to change that fact.

One of the larger things looming is an appointment that I have with a neurologist tomorrow. The appointment will pretty much confirm what myself, my wife, and most of you all who’ve met me have suspected/known all along, namely that I have Tourette’s (Wikipedia link, in case you aren’t aware that it’s not just people screaming curse words). While this condition is treatable, I’m still filled with a certain feeling of dread, namely that I may lose some aspects of me since the treatment is usually a mild sedative. Yes, despite tons (and gigs) of research to the contrary, I’m assuming that I’m about to become a medicated zombie. This is especially harsh in light of the fact that I am also probably going to start a mood-stabilizer soon enough to help treat a condition I have known as Cyclothymia (another Wikipedia link, but it’s basically diet Bipolar Disorder). And then combined with my other meds (metformin, lycinopril, and tricor), I just think my entire life will be an endless series of pills and, basically, I’ll spend my days either zoned-out, or in the bathroom (I’ll let you all make that appropo joke there, I am still generous after all).

So I’ve decided I need to revisit an old project idea of mine, Senbazuru (yup, another Wikipedia link). Senbazuru is the act of folding 1,000 origami cranes. The legend is, basically, that anyone who folds 1,000 cranes is granted a single wish by a crane, which just so happens to be a symbol of health and luck over in Japan. Yes, I am weeaboo, please get over it. My current plan is to try and do at least one a day, take a picture, and post it here on my blog. At first the overall flow will be plain. Solid colors and such. Eventually, I’ll be doing what I usually do with my cranes and creating customized colors and designs for them. It’s an art project, basically.

On one hand I’m really excited about this project. On the other, I wonder if I’ll stick with it. Part of my goal here is to ensure that I don’t just fall completely into myself once I start getting on all of these meds. I’ll be using the Senbazuru tag on all of these, of course, so you’ll have quick access to the gallery. Eventually I will also probably create a Flickr gallery for them.

That’s about it for now. Stay tuned as I’m reasonably sure I’ll post again tomorrow about what I find out at the neurologist consult.

Wheeeeee.