“Get fat on Lorings Fat-ten-u and corpula foods”; “Advertisement showing young woman with package of Loring’s Fat-Ten-U food tablets and package of Loring’s Corpula, a fat-producting food.” Color lithograph (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If I ever get a smart phone, there are certain apps I’ll probably not buy: the probability and surety that a piano will fall on my head; the chance that a comet is headed straight for earth, it’s a bad hair day or how not to get to a greasy spoon diner. But there is one app I definitely need and it would start with the robot from “Lost in Space” shouting “warning, warning, danger, danger” as I’m about the explode with rage from a bipolar 2 hypo/manic episode.
It sure would have come in handy the last few weeks. I’ve been rapidly cycling through binging and destroying the contains of our little house. Brought on by stress and rapid, no reason for it weight gain and protruding abdomen (echoes of last year). The binging was mostly food (a bit of shopping and hiding purchases by using a credit card not tied to an account hubby has access to) and what a binge it’s been. My waist is now usually 40 inches and unbearable to have clothes touching and I’ve regained all the weight I tried so hard to lose since December and I suspect when I get weighed tomorrow at the doctor’s office, I will be at least 30 pounds over my ideal weight. This will send me spiraling downward as my bipolar 2 can do.
I destroyed the house twice, and the 2nd time was so upset and tired from my rampage, I couldn’t finish the job of putting things back together – hubby had to. I had to increase both of my meds (I had to reduce one due to dangerously low sodium levels in my blood) to try to lift my mood and stabilize my emotions. The binging has to stop (for years I had it under control) and the rage has to find another outlet than throwing stuff including medication with the lid off!
I should have gone to the ER yesterday, or called my shrink or doctor, but it would have gone nowhere. Hubby couldn’t come home. He was in a bad way himself as he found out through unofficial channels that in October, contract employees will be given the choice of taking a reduction in pay (in hubby’s case ½ of what he is making per hour now) with no more access to buying health care insurance.
We’re screwed as we can barely make it on his salary now, and without health care no more meds and no more doctors. I can stockpile some drugs til we lose our health care, but Lyrica is a controlled substance and I can only get a 6 month supply at a time. I would be due to get a new script in October, so there goes my pain meds. When I think of how much pain I will be in, I start to cry. It is unbearable and will completely disable me.
I don’t qualify for disability, and even if I did, I would have to wait at least a year before Medicaid would take effect. I’m afraid of what life will be like. I suspect I won’t be able to get out of bed. Eve writing this brings on the tears, so I have to leave go.
My dear, I’m sorry I’m just catching up. I haven’t been around much recently. So overwhelmed with this new way of hearing, and the auditory therapy.
The blanking out…that was a symptom of my bipolar…my doc called it “losing time”. But yours is different so I don’t know. However, some meds can really do some wicked things to you. Lyrica can make you gain weight…like over night! I gained 50lbs on it, and I was only on it for about 2 months.
I’m on a drug now that depletes your potassium a lot…it’s a diuretic. I feel all bloated, but can’t be with this very strong diuretic I’m on.
I have been on a low sodium diet for years….because of Meniere’s. Your sodium must be extremely low for it to be interfering with you like this. I wouldn’t worry about adding some to your diet if it’s that low, you need some or your neurons in your brain won’t fire correctly.
i know we both desperately want to lose weight, but we have to get our health under control before we can be ready to really concentrate on that. I really, really want to, but with everything else going on, it’s pretty impossible.
I do know that some drug companies will give you your medication at a very reduced price if you can’t afford it. One that I’m getting now, is on a program like that. Years ago, I had to get my psych meds like that, or I wouldn’t have been able to have them at all. I also had to see a psych team from the county…I paid on a sliding scale. My visits were $2.50.
What is it your husband does again?
I’m off to read the rest of your posts.
hugs to you
w
just a quick reply to let you know I read your insightful and helpful comments. I emailed you about what hubby does and has done in terms of work. He used to work with his hands but with the osteoarthritis, that’s not an option. Using the computer is okay — he needs a better set up at work and definitely at home.
As for me — dangerously low sodium is 125, mine was 126! I had it tested again and for some reason the medicating shrink never called me with the results nor did the results show up in my reg. drs. office, so I have no idea how much longer I need to pour on the salt (I’m not really a salt eater — when I crave salt, I make popcorn or baked fries or wedges (Alexia’s all natural). It’s causing edema on some days — especially when I try to drink the amount of water the holistically minded GI guy wants me to.
Read the literature that can with my latest med fill up and the antidepressant I was planning on cutting in half — I’m on 5 mg — is also a sodium sucker! which neither dr. knew. All the more reason to get off it — we figure when the dose was upped to 40 in the fall, that was the catalyst for my breakdown in November.
I’ve been on Lyrica for years and only gained a few pounds over a long perod of time. I’m on a slightly higher dose (I was on a lower dose to make it last last summer and the weight I gained then didn’t come off so Lyrica isn’t the issue) I think that Savella f***ed my metabolism and even though I got off it, it’s started this issue. I’m going to see my dr. again in a few weeks about my mental health and I want to talk about insulin resistence and cortesol — things that were never an issue before. My glucose is naturally high — even if I haven’t been eating sugary things I can get a reading over 100 after fasting.
Had some tests done in dr.s office and a woman’s test (long overdue). All the results should be in by the appointment, and I should find out how the sodium is doing.
It’s nuts — I gained 4 pounds from yesterday to today (I don’t usually weigh myself — I go by the size of my protruding, pregnant looking abdomen and the way my clothes fit or don’t fit. But I was curious to see how the salt was affecting my weight. Oh well.
Should go fold the towels. I’ll reply to your other comments later! bfn
Oh, Lorraine, I have no words to bring you relief – just to say I am so sorry you’re having and are facing such difficulties.
with love,
j
Thanks, I’m hanging in there. We have to make plans for where we’ll go and what we’ll do. It’s been hard — I’ve been doing job searches in other states. There is the option of moving back to Canada, but where? We’ve lived on both coasts, but don’t have family anymore to rely on for a place to stay, etc. Friends might help, but we don’t like to impose.
The scarest thing for me right now is that I blink out — do things and have no memory of doing them. I went crazy yesterday and practically turned the house upside down with violent throws, pushing things off shelves, etc. When we managed to get things back to normal (lol), I discovered I can’t find my case with my ipod nano and pedometer watch (just purchased recently). It’s not in the garbage bags I filled with stuff to throw out (in my bipolar 2 state, cleaning up becaming throwing out) and hubby put upstairs. I’m so afraid its gone — put in one of the garbage bags that went out this morning — before I realized that it was gone. I remember destroying and putting back together — I just can’t remember what I did with the ipod case. If its gone, well there’s no money to replace it — I won most of the money from the cell phone provider I had in Canada.
This blinking out is becoming more common and I really hope it’s not another sign of dementia setting in.
Sorry to go on so, take good care!
Can the blinking out be a side-effect of any of the meds? I developed narcolepsy on Mirapex so I now believe anything is possible.
could be — I’m on some pretty heavy duty meds for the bipolar 2. Also, as I will post, I had a long talk with my doctor today, and she feels that low sodium can be behind a lot of my recent symptoms — that would be nice in the sense that there may be ways to address this — lots of salty snacks — except on their scales, I’ve gained 10 pounds (I didn’t do THAT much binging); at home I weight 10 pounds less with a weight gain of 3 pounds. Either way, I have to start a new regime to get to the point I was after I really followed a diet in December — lost 10 pounds in a month or so.
Also need to look up edema — going by my ankles and right knee (besides the protruding tummy) there is extra fluid there — but of course any thing to make me go to the bathroom more (I already go enought, thank you!) would also deplete the sodium — a real catch 22!
I see her again on monday for a “women’s thing,” and will be making another appointment to deal with my mental health crisis (today was supposed to be about prescriptions only, but the site of me in tears (I tried to hold it back before she came in) clued her into something being wrong.
I usually give her a hug (she’s been having a hard time), but today, she kept giving me hugs — which was nice.
I’m starting to go on so, I’ll sign off for now and work on my post re the new “developements” and a project just about ready to launch.
Take good care, and thanks for the concern and suggestions — I always find you to be wise and understanding.
Say hi to Max for me — I hope he is doing better!