Urgent Care Tales

[Seshat]

Smiley, be super aware that different meds work for different people, and you do NOT have to be taking one that really messes you up otherwise.

If you need an antidepressant due to messed up neurochemistry (or neural anatomy); they're probably going to have to figure out which one by trial and error.
Due to various ways the body protects the brain, there's no way short of drilling through the skull to sample the neurochemistry. (Yet.) If you're curious, 'circle of willis' is a good phrase to start your study with.

If you need an antidepressant to make starting therapy more tolerable or more possible, you still need to get one which is compatible with your personal neurochemistry, and the specific reason you, individually, are depressed.

If you have family members - as in, blood family - who take antidepressants, find out which ones. That increases the chance that they'll get it right first try.

[dragon_wings]

If you have family members - as in, blood family - who take antidepressants, find out which ones. That increases the chance that they'll get it right first try.

This. My mother takes the same thing as me. Same dose as well. It works well for both of us.

[smileyeagle1021]

One thing that concerns me about taking anti-depressants, or even seeking help in general, is that I some day want to be able to adopt, and while in Nevada gay couple are supposed to be treated the same as straight couples, all it takes is a douche bag case worker who has decided that a gay couple is not suitable to raise a child who will dig into medical records and go "aha, anti-depressant prescription, I can use that to show he is clearly not fit to be a parent" and use it as an excuse to deny an adoption. And at that point, I'd need the anti-depressants even more than ever (and before someone tries to say that is crazy and tries to take this into fratching territory, I will point out, if you read the fine print in the Nevada laws, they can deny an adoption for not having a landline telephone, so it's not paranoia if they really might be out to get you).

[Seshat]

No, it's not paranoia.

It's only very recently that mental health/mental illness has become 'not a bogeyman' in the general zeitgeist.

When my family doctor was recording me as needing mental health assistance, he looked very seriously at me, and asked if I was sure I wanted it on my medical record. And listed various reasons I might not - most of which are forms of 'discrimination' or '-ism'. Unreasonable, irrational, and illegal - but as with sooo many illegal types of discrimination, people find ways to get away with it.

I opted to go for it anyway; but I fully understand why you might not.

So.

Mood Gym is cognitive behavioural therapy - the same thing Sapphire mentioned above. It's a form of 'physio for the mind' aka therapy; it works for many people (not all - no one therapy does); and it's certainly worth a try.
It's anonymous*, it's free; the Australian National University (who runs it) keeps it running because we have soooo many people who are too far from a therapist to get to one regularly.
It can't hurt to give it a try.

I think I read earlier in the thread that someone else knows another high-quality online therapy.

* Okay. Nothing on the 'net is TOTALLY, completely, foolproof anonymous. But I can't think of any legitimate reason someone would demand the ANU provide the IP addresses of people who've accessed moodgym. And I would trust the ANU to hire ethical sysadmins.

[Reyneth]

This. My mother takes the same thing as me. Same dose as well. It works well for both of us.

But don't get stuck in what works for your family - my sister and I are/were (not sure if she is still taking anything) on meds that are on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum.

Most anti-depressants out there now don't make you high or a zombie or anything like that. They just make things more level like filling in the valleys somewhat.

[Draper Mel]

Most anti-depressants out there now don't make you high or a zombie or anything like that. They just make things more level like filling in the valleys somewhat.

Exactly. This is what medication does for me. I still get lows, I still cry about stuff, but it's easier to come back up. I don't get stuck in a low and have it bottom out and make me miserable for weeks.

And what therapy has done is give me an arsenal of tools to help climb back up from those lows.

[wolfie]

Mood Gym is cognitive behavioural therapy - the same thing Sapphire mentioned above. It's a form of 'physio for the mind' aka therapy; it works for many people (not all - no one therapy does); and it's certainly worth a try.
It's anonymous*, it's free; the Australian National University (who runs it) keeps it running because we have soooo many people who are too far from a therapist to get to one regularly.
It can't hurt to give it a try.

I think I read earlier in the thread that someone else knows another high-quality online therapy.

* Okay. Nothing on the 'net is TOTALLY, completely, foolproof anonymous. But I can't think of any legitimate reason someone would demand the ANU provide the IP addresses of people who've accessed moodgym. And I would trust the ANU to hire ethical sysadmins.

Also, it's offered by the Australian National University. Even if someone (legitimate reason or no) demanded that ANU provide the IP addresses, if that someone were from outside Australia their local court would have no jurisdiction "down under", so ANU could legitimately tell them that their court order should be used as a suppository. If they tried an Australian court, proceedings would be under Australian rules, so their local "we're the government of jurisdiction X, so we're entitled to know everything about our subjectscitizens" law wouldn't fly.

[dragon_wings]

But don't get stuck in what works for your family - my sister and I are/were (not sure if she is still taking anything) on meds that are on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum.

I spoke too soon anyways. I realized a couple days ago that my antidepressant was causing a really bad side effect. Then my doctor's office was closed until the 2nd. But that's one of the first things I plan to do once they open this morning, call them to get this fixed.

[Ghel]

I should get my SIL on this thread. She has several major health issues, any one of which could kill her in pretty short order. She's also had a number of run-ins with doctors and nurses who won't listen to her when she says what's wrong.

Between the chronic pain and lack of heart function, SIL leads a rather sedentary lifestyle, which has effected the circulation in her legs. About 2 weeks ago, her pinky toe started turning purple. She managed to get in to see her cardiologist, who's about an hour drive away, who ended up doing an angiogram and putting several stents in her legs. Then it was wait and see if her toe improved.

Well, it didn't, and her leg started getting numb on Tuesday (New Year's Day). So it was off to the local emergency room. They kept her there for 5 hours, refused to run any tests, and refused to transfer her to the hospital where her cardiologist is. She was in tears when she called me yesterday to tell me about this.

Luckily, she was able to get in to see her cardiologist today. I hope they're able to help her before she loses her leg.

[Sapphire Silk]

Well, it didn't, and her leg started getting numb on Tuesday (New Year's Day). So it was off to the local emergency room. They kept her there for 5 hours, refused to run any tests, and refused to transfer her to the hospital where her cardiologist is. She was in tears when she called me yesterday to tell me about this.

Luckily, she was able to get in to see her cardiologist today. I hope they're able to help her before she loses her leg.

I don't understand. What was their rationale for not doing any tests? A venous doppler of the leg is easy enough to do, and can be done at the bedside in the ER.

[42_42_42]

I've done a lot of research on adoption as my husband and I will be going that route (first going to try to do embryo adoption) as we cannot have kids any other way (bilateral oopherectomy for me due to non-cancerous tumors and his swimmers don't swim). Depression and generalized anxiety are not reasons to rule out a couple as adoptive parents, especially if the person is receiving treatment. If they did, I'd imagine at least half the people seeking to adopt wouldn't be able to do so. There are psychiatric disorders which do preclude adoption (eg. schizophrenia), but depression isn't one of them.

[AnqeiicDemise]

DH wound up with a really awkward pain from what he calls 'in the center of my joint and its not bone paint, it just flippin' hurts!' one day.

It isn't like him to say anything hurts so I said we should make a dr. app. He said he'd walk it off. Day turns to weeks and finally one morning at like 3 am I'm woken up by the sound of him *crying* and telling me he's stuck in the bathtub. Apparently he couldn't sleep because of the pain and the warmth of a bath had helped him before so he tried it again but this time the pain wasn't going away.

He argued with me all the way to ER. The nurse basically treated us like drug addicts and told him the strongest medication he'd give us would be extra strength tylenol. He did give DH anti nausea medication since he has ulcers and hadn't eaten anything in days due to pain.

I pestered *my* doctor and got him in later on that day. (I heart Dr. M to death, seriously) He took one look at DH, had him do a few diagnostic stretches, asked him a few questions and LISTENED to the description of this odd pain. He finished with 'Here's an Rx for some vicodin, cut the pill in half and relax for today and tomorrow. Meanwhile, we're going to run some blood tests and check for gout. You're rather young for it, but it sounds like a classic case of gout. We'll find out by tomorrow."


Sure enough, it was gout.

I felt like getting the test results and clobbering the nurses at the ER over the head with it. From what I understand gout is one of the more painful chronic disorders/diseases one could have.

ps: When my brother found out about this, he called DH a pansy and a wuss. Cut to three years later, brother's in the hospital *crying* because of a case of gout so severe the slightest noise sent him wailing. Hey, at least it got him to finally go into recovery. Apparently beer is one of the worst things to drink with gout. (And he was a hardcore alcoholic. He's okay with quitting alcohol because he can't stand the pain from the disease. HAH!)

[AnqeiicDemise]

Here's another one I just remembered:

My daddy's very sick in a different country while on vacation. Since he had labored breathing and dizzynes, as well as complained about painful urine, the docs had him take a pee test. His urine came out with blood. So they do an Ultra Sound only to find out he has his prostate intact.

Um.. according to KP he had his prostrate removed 15 years ago. Nice, right? This is the same hospital who told my mother she was having a full hysterectomy but only did a partial. (I also was ignored and not taken seriously for almost 12 hours in 6th grade, only to have the head doctor doing rounds take a look at my chart then tear the nurses some new ones because according to my test results, bp and some other conditions I should have been in the OR *hours* ago and to get a room for me immediately. My appendix burst while in surgery.)

[AccountingDrone]

Yup, gout is particularly painful because you have the uric acid crystals inside a joint, which takes up space. On top of that, the little grindy effect from joint motion vs crystal sharp pointy bits, it causes inflammation, which puts further pressure on the poor joints. At least gout is well controllable now with drugs and diet.

My hubby's mom is a nurse. When he was 14 he had a stomach ache, for a week. Until his appendix exploded Now he has this immense scar in the usual place because they had to reopen him up after about a week to clean all the gunk out a second time. He really doesn't recommend peritonitis as a fun way to lose almost 50 pounds.

[Ghel]

I don't understand. What was their rationale for not doing any tests? A venous doppler of the leg is easy enough to do, and can be done at the bedside in the ER.

They claimed they couldn't do any testing because it was a holiday. ><

I get the impression they treat her with skepticism because she's a "frequent flyer." Well, if you had AIDS, only 25% heart function, diabetes, and chronic back pain, you'd be in the hospital frequently, too!