thanks roy

depression is horrible, ive been on so many anti depressants, and the only one that has helped me is citalopram 60mg, or the purer version which is called escitalopram 20mg.

Hi Karen,

im sorry to hear you had problems with seroquel.

i ran out of my zolpidem/ambien a few weeks back and i was having to take a 1000mg of seroquel at night, and i have no problem with it at all. but that alone doesnt get me to sleep. I have very high resistence to meds, as ive been sick since i was born with asthma, then i got endometriosis and im on powerful pain relief,i have bladder problems and im waiting for surgery, theres a high chance i have addisons, i need shooting!!!!!! then i was raped and thats when my depression started. i think ive been through the whole spectrum of meds for depression, and escitalopram or citalopram are the only anti depressants that agree with me and work. The rest made me ill.

Debbie - I type for doctors every day, I type their notes into patients charts, so I am familiar with a lot of the drugs. I have been thinking about what you wrote all day and decided to look up the meds tonight. To tell you the truth, the meds you are on scare the heck out of me.

Sumitriptan - Imitrex is for migraines, that is fine.

Zolpidem - Ambien - is a hypnotic for sleep, okay, maybe.

Escitalopram - Lexapro - an antidepressant - good.

Quetiopine - Seroquel - WOW, looks like a huge dose to me. I looked up the warnings and it says to "contact your doctor immediately if you have muscle stiffness or rigidity, or a fast heartbeat." You said your pulse was 125 - I would consider that fast, and rigidity, with your problems waking up at night?? Wonder if that is a side effect of this drug?? Also said this drug could increase the effects of antidepressants and sedatives (you are on Lexapro and Valium and Ambien).

DF118/dihyrdrocodeine - opoid -- double WOW !! Says to use caution if you have ASTHMA!!!

Pethidine - opoid Demerol - closely related to morphine -- This one said not for long term use for chronic pain, only short term as it could cause seizures if it were used over the long term.

Now -- after reading all this, that last sentence in the Demerol drug - "can cause seizures if used over a long period of time" I would wonder if you are actually having some strange sort of seizure and not some sleeping issue. There are all types of seizures, anything from staring off into space, to lip smacking to twitching one hand, to the big grand mal we all know about. The fact that you fell out of bed and then woke up sounds seizure-like activity. And your legs not working right, could be a post-ictal state (which is the state the body is in right after a seizure, somewhat foggy, kind of confused, can last for a few minutes or hours). It sounds like you could be having petit mal seizures.

I really think you need to get to your doctor and get checked out NOW !!! I don't know if your doctor put you on all these drugs, but if he did, then try another doctor who will be objective and have them review the med list and see what they think. It looks like you are on the maximum dosage for the opiates and the Seroquel dosage is huge. I worry about you accidentally hurting yourself with all this stuff. I don't know of any doctors who put anyone on 2 opiates at the same time and such large doses. I am worried for you Debbie, please go get checked and soon. I hope I didn't offend you with this information but you did ask for input. I do work in the medical field and am interested in this stuff so I hope you don't take this wrong, but I am seriously concerned for your health. Please take care of yourself.

Karen - you are so sweet, but there are a lot of good people in this thread who keep it going, including yourself, and Roy, Amber, Jax, darn I know I am missing some people and I don't want to leave anyone out, so please forgive me if I missed your name. I am tired tonight. Been one of "those" days.

Roy - I agree with Karen, I like the soldier story too, and that was a good analogy for who you remind me of. I too see you as the backbone that keeps people together, keeps them motivated, the problem is the load gets heavy after awhile. Take care of you, don't let burnout get you. I am glad you go to your meetings and I hope you get your needs met as much as you take care of other's needs.

Jax - hope you are having a good day.

Sharon - I so understand what you are saying, been there, done that, and still doing that. Am burning out myself, and really tired. Just keeping putting one foot in front of the other, I keep telling myself, but sure am tired these days. Been leaning on my friends a lot, and that is really strange and hard for me, because I never do that, never ask for help, have always tried to handle things myself, so am venturing into new territory myself. That is one thing cool about this thread, no one has ever gotten ugly in here or attacked anyone, it has been a safe haven.

Smiles - welcome aboard. Thanks for the offer for the jokes. I do agree, laughter is a great medicine. And thank you for approving your message.

I am tired today, dad called today while I was at work, asked me to go get him some cough drops, he has a cold now. His theory on getting rid of a cold is to take Tylenol and use Halls mentholyptus cough drops, so I was running around at lunch time buying his cough drops and taking them to the nursing home for him. He didn't look too good, looked down, but expected that, my aunt (his sister) just died Sunday night of cancer, but he was more pale than I expected and didn't have his usual spunk. But he was talking about what he wanted for dinner Friday night (usually fish and chips, but wants Chinese food this time) so guess his appetite is still intact. He has a motorized wheelchair and goes to Safeway several times a week and buys doughnuts for the staff, or to the Bayview Restaurant if staff order breakfast and picks it up for them, or to McDonalds and buys breakfast sandwiches or the $1 burgers and hands them out to staff. I told him if he keeps this up, I will get him a job delivering pizza so he can at least make some tips. (That is why I have to keep an eye on his bank account, so he doesn't overdraw.) My aunt's memorial is March 1st so have to plan a trip with him to Portland then. He should be over his cold by then.

Hope everyone has a great week. Keep away from the cold and flu bugs. I hear the flu going around is one that you aren't protected from by the flu shot, and it is nasty. Take care.

i do have very bad asthma, my asthma is also uncontrolled. i have ventolin, seretide, uniphyllin, and i have a nebuliser for severe attacks with ventolin nebules.

ive been on demerol for over 3 years, and df118 for over a year

when my mom found me on the floor, i was totally out of it, and latly i do find myself staring at things for a long time, and i find it hard to stop doing it.

thanks for the advice. i really need to look into what meds im taking.

I appreciate the safe haven myself, Marie. It is comforting to share the events of our life. I have one resident who has a motorized chair. The control is on the back like a joy stick. She is 58 and her mother is in her 80's. I got to dress her and put her in her chair this morning. Dayshift said thank you because she is stiff and have to bend her to strap her into her chair. She is always excited about her mother coming to see her. It is hard to make out what she is saying. Her mother being in her 80's it is hard for her to take care of her. The resident is happy where she is and she gives a certain to the staff and helps morale. The chair takes some getting used to steering and the first time she was brought in we didn't have the rechargeable cord for the batteries. It is always nice the day after payday to eat out at one of the buffet restaurants in town. Got my bills paid for the month, yesterday so didn't get that much sleep myself because of running around to pay bills. Did get some dvds to watch so am probably just gone to lay on the couch and be a couch potato the rest of the day.

Yay, we got my dryer fixed.

You are right Marie, there are several ppl who carry the thread and the fact that no one has gotten nasty and everyone has been nice and supportive has been a blessing. Everyone in here has and is a blessing and I don't know what I would do without it and my friends.

Debbie, my daughter has silent seazures. She stares off into space. Not so much now that she is grown but I don't think she admits to it. Sounds like that is whats happening to you too. And falling........I feel constantly and had a hard time functioning on the seroquel. I don't care how resistant you are to meds, that much seroquel IS going to affect you in a real bad way and mixed with all the others.....Im worried too.

I have been meds resistant for years, maybe always. Ive had migraines since I was 13 and was on imatrex as well. My script ran out and I have to take tylenol, which is all that works now. Large doses, so I realize that after so much paion, it is appealing to just take whatever they want to give you to try to make the pain away.

There has to be something out there that can work. I know cuz I never gave up and now I am as stable as possible for my condition. I still have my ups and downs, and they can be very up and very down, but after you get these meds under control, maybe you can ask about Lamictal. It works for me whaen nothing else will. I also take klonapin and a heart med........I do hope you will do someting about this imeadiately! Dont wait, you are in danger.

YEAH!!!! ROY! You got it fixed!!!!! Whoot whoot!

Marie, I do hope you can find some time for yourself and take a breather. Even if it is for a short time. Im glad you are moving into unknown territory. I know it is hard to ask for help. I have the same problem and have had to swallow my pride and accept whatever help I can get. Not saying you are prideful, just that I understand and am happy that you are here and feel confortable enough to be here with us.

Debbie 1000ml of anything is off the hook...i would go to a pharmacist and tell them what your on.They can immediately check for drug interaction and tell you if you need all that stuff..

ive stopped taking the seroquel. and ive lost 7 pounds in 4 days. woohooo


how are you jax??

good for you Debbie! I gained way too much wieght on that stuff. I went from 238 give or take a lb to 172, where I am now since I stopped taking it several months ago. Im glad to hear you have stopped taking it as well because all of us were are worried about the doses you've been given.

Just wanted to stop in and say hello to you creation, and thanks for all your help a while back.. hugs

i did gain a little weight on it. ive lost 9 pound in 6 days now.

my tummy isnt so bad today, but these migraines are really annoying me, he gave me new ones and there not working, and the sumitriptan isnt working, so im thinking are they migraines, or something else??

can you say a prayer please.

my sisters friends hung himself left week, he had bipolar.

when they did the post mortum, they found out he was a scitzophrenic.

so sad, he was only 26.



i keep thinking if they found out he was a scitzoprenic when he was alive, maybe he would still be alive now.

Hi true. No problem. We are all here if you want to hang out or just talk.

debbie, prayer said.

thanks sweetie

I had a rewarding night and it was fun. I got to work with this 19 year old NA that I am training. It was like going back in time with all the things that I had to learn first hand the hard way. She hasn't got her license, yet and they assigned me to orientate her. I got to teach her how to be loving and gentle with the residents. I got to teach her the why of the reasons for having to get a license. I got to teach why we wear gloves and close curtains to give privacy, dignity and respect. I got to see her get brutalized with one resident's temper. I had went through the same thing with the resident that she had went through. Like me the new orientee incurred the resident's wrath because the resident expects perfection. I got to see the new aide ask the same question as I did of why is she being so cruel to me because I am only trying to help her. Like the book I had to give her the answer that the resident is not mobile like we are and the resident has her own view of reality. That no matter how the resident gets combative we are not supposed to get combative back with her. It really gave me some validity to my own feelings dealing with residents but at the same time about how when I was new and had to learn through the ladies who taught me how overcome my own feelings of being attack because residents' Alzheimer's are not always in their right mind and one has to take that into consideration as well as not take what they say about you personally. It was so cool to help the aide vent out her frustrations because I know if she doesn't get past them then she will never make it as an aide and just get pissed off and quit like so many do. It was so nice to instill in her the survival instincts of being an aide like the ones who had taught me how to survive in the aide's profession. It was like I was telling the aide, "Welcome to my nightmare and now lets see if you got what it takes to make it."

good deb..except for the tooth i have to have extracted on the 21st..
prayers to your friend and her family .must be horrible.

i feel ya pain hon............