Wednesday, October 11

Doctor visit: cholesterol, antidepressant, and fatigue

Went to my appointment with my doctor this morning to review my blood-test results and discuss the antidepressant he prescribed. All the tests were fine, except he says my cholesterol is a little high. However, it wasn't until we were sitting in the van getting ready to go when Rain noticed that we didn't have the numbers of the results. She went back in and came out with them. Just eyeballing the cholesterol numbers, she doesn't think they're all that bad. A lot of doctors take the *total* from the good and bad, but don't tell you what the numbers for each is. Plus the numbers the doctors want to see change, depending on when the pharmaceutical companies feel they want more money from prescriptions of the 'Static' drugs. So we need to look-up the numbers and see where they're supposed to be and when the ratio of total to good is okay. In fact I could just do that now, huh? :-) Well, what I found is that my numbers aren't all that bad (LDL=152, HDL=46, Total=201, Ratio=4.7), so I'm going to stick with the way of eating I'm doing, except I would like to lower the amount of carbs. But they're SO tasty. LOL.

We talked about the Effexor. I told him I don't really feel any different from when I was taking the Lexapro. So he told me he would recommend a psychiatrist then "because we've tried a few drugs and you're not getting any better" (Prozac-1999, Wellbutrin 1999 with *horrible* side-effects, Celexa then Lexapro because I couldn't afford Celexa w/o insurance, so was on samples of Lexapro for over a year, and now Effexor as of a month ago). I said, "Okay, as long as you think Medicare will pay for one". I also told that I guess not as depressed and definitely not having the nightmares (I was on Lexapro in the end), so maybe it's just more fatigue. I told him had been taking samples of Provigil for fatigue, but ran out. So he said he'd leave me on the Effexor (and skip the psychiatrist), even though I told him I was concerned about the possible side-effect of memory loss because of it. Apparently he didn't hear that part, because he said nothing. Plus he didn't prescribe anything for the fatigue. I don't know what to do. Should I go back on the Lexapro, or continue with the Effexor? Definitely don't want memory loss, but don't want nightmares either. *sigh* Rain thinks I should just go back to the Lexapro and then talk to my neurologist about changing antidepressants and getting something for the fatigue, when I see him in February '07.

Didn't get out of the doctor until almost noon, so we missed the playdate with the other homeschoolers, so we stopped, got fries at Mickeys and came home.

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