A local town had a harvest festival today. So Derrick and I went and
did that. Its been a long tiring time for me. Just have no energy it
seems. But its not fair to ask him not to do anything. But he and I
had a great time.

Donna

Hi,
I saw my pdoc on Thursday.
Usually I tell him that I am fine so that I can leave and come home. This time I asked him to lower one of my meds because I have brain fog and feel sluggish. He took my blood pressure -- fine, thank God -- and then wrote out a lab request for some blood tests on my thyroid. I told him that my thyroid is fine: I'm not eating right and not feeling good. He said it won't hurt to check the thyroid.

He remembered that the last time we lowered the mood stabilzer, it didn't work. I said that that was three years ago and I was on Wellbutrin at the time. I am not on an AD now so maybe the mood stabilzer can go a little lower. Next time I see him I want to lower my benzo. I am tired of feeling like a slug.

I wasn't even able to respond to his questions properly. He asked how I manage at work. I told him that I am faking it.

Today or tomorrow I will pick up the meds from the pharmacy and start on the lowered dose of the Verapamil (my mood stabilizer). I hope that I am ok with the lower dose and that it does it fact help my cognitive stuff.

Mari

Mari

What dose of verapamil are you going too. Out of curiosity.

I'm on that, and its something I just got lowered and I really wish
my neuro hadn't lowered it. So I'm wondering how much you were
on before it was lowered.

I'm going to be very curious to see how you do after you have been
lowered for a few days.

I know why I was lowered but have a feeling its why I got so much
worse and now can't seem to recover.

Donna

Hi,
I've been on 240 mg Verapamil since the early nineties. It was the only mood stabilizer available at that time that I could tolerate and that didn't cause cognitive dulling.

When I tried to go to a lower dose 3+ years ago, I started getting anxious.

I think that my new dose is 190 mgs but I have not picked it up yet.
These heart meds can have a powerful effect on mood.


BTW, are you taking extra Calcium? Calcium interferes with Verapamil. I forgot this a while back (duh) and decided by myself that I needed extra calcium tablets. It made the Verapamil less/not effective and I got anxiety again. The pdoc then told me to also stay away from stuff like certain orange juice and other stuff that has extra calcium added.

I stay away from all citrus because lemon juice interferes with Verapamil. I suspect that all citrus interferes -- we just don't have the exact studies yet.

I'll let you know how I do.

'Hope that this helps a little.

Mari


PS
My blood pressure is 120/80 -- I have no idea what it would be without the Verapamil.

Well mine got cut in half. So this definately is a interesting thing.

But mine isn't for mood. So that makes me really wonder, if it was helping my mood stability and its now effecting things. But I also have been drinking some orange juice because I am supposed to get as much sodium in my system a day as I can, and juices are one thing that has lots in it.

So its one of the things I can drink. So this is interesting.

Thanks for the interesting things that might help.

Donna