Tuesday, October 31, 2006

October 2006 KKBJ

Welcome to Kathryn and Katee's Bipolar Journal. Here are the players in this blog: Katee is the college age teen who also has bipolar disorder, Kathryn is the mom and Charlie is the husband of Kathryn and the father of Katee. He also has bipolar disorder.

In the month of October you'll read about: no sleep, switching from Equetro to Tegretol, Katee's pitting fingernails, thyroid troubles, unadopting a child, and buying Charlie's meds while he's in The Donut Hole.

Monday, October 30, 2006

3 a.m. Can't Sleep




11 a.m. on day two of my vacation. On my to do list: clean cabinets, scrub front porch...etc.

I tear up 12 pack cardboard boxes of beer and soda to throw them away. Crumpled inside the beer box I find this note.

I ask Charlie about it. He says he dropped it on the yellow kitchen counter about 3 a.m. this morning before he drove to Wal-Mart. It was a sleepless night on D street despite taking Trazodone and Klonopin. (Kathryn)

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Just in Time for All Hallow's Eve...The Skinless Man






















So far so good with Charlie taking Tegretol.

He still has skin. There are no signs of exfoliative dermatitis or Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. (Kathryn)

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Pitting



Started looking for what might cause the pitting on Katee's nails, since psoriasis and arthritis have been ruled out. Stumbled across this from the University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina Health Library: minor pitting may be normal. Oh! Since it's just her ring fingers that are doing it maybe it's normal.

However HealthCentral.com says malnutrition of any sort can affect the appearance of the nails. So now I'm thinking that's it. I know we need to work on our diets and make better food choices.

We have made some better choices by cutting down on trips to fast food places. Katee's switched from white bread to whole wheat. And we're drinking more water and tea and trying to lessen the number of sodas. (Kathryn)


About the photo: Katee says no to pancakes. It was a late night trip to IHOP and Katee decided to just drink water.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Blood Work

Poked and prodded. Does it come with the territory of having bipolar disorder? Charlie and Katee have both had blood work done lately. You want the bad news or good news first?

I'll start with Charlie. The nurse from the psychiatrist's office called this week and said his thyroid is "screwed up." I swear that's what Charlie said she said. So we've made an appointment with his MD ABFP CAQ GERIATRICS CMD (those are the initials behind the doctor's name). He goes in Friday at 10:15am.

The irony? He stopped taking lithium in May after taking it for 10 years. Then a couple of months later his thyroid is "screwed up." I'm assuming the doctor will be looking for Hypothyroidism since it can be caused by taking medications with lithium.

Katee went to her MD last week because her fingernails are pitting. This week she got a letter with the results. It said her arthritis panel is negative (normal). She also had x-rays taken of her knees. Those results were normal. So no abnormalities were found. At this point arthritis and psoriasis have been ruled out.

Her pretty nails are still pitting. I'm gonna research if this can be caused by a vitamin deficiency or maybe some weird side effect of one of her meds. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in an episode of that Fox show House. (Kathryn)

Monday, October 09, 2006

you can't just "give him back."

Mother Wants to 'Unadopt' Child

This article hurts my heart. Seriously, I was under the impression that when a child is adopted, he becomes your child, through everything. Unless I was very much mistaken, I believed that adoption was forever. So here's this child who obviously loves his "mother" and who is very, very sick, being "sent back." He's sick. He is asking to be put on suicide watch. He knows something is wrong, he told her something was wrong. He told her about the voices. He acted out, and she punished him, but he didn't stop acting out. He pulled out his own hair and her course of action was to shave it off? He ran away from school multiple times, and she thought a spanking would cure it. Is she stupid? I'm sorry that they "withheld" information from her, but, you know, she could've asked for the records any time. It's not his fault she didn't take the time to educate herself.

Yes, I understand that he's fucked up some people's lives and he's done some bad shit, but my god, work with him. Get him some help. I'm sorry to say it, but in most (serious) cases, tough love doesn't work. If he had cancer or something she would applaud him for being so brave. The article is written with a bias toward the mother. It's written in a tone that's saying, "The mentally ill are the enemy." I don't appreciate it one bit. This really and truly breaks my heart. She made the decision to adopt him. As a foster parent, she must've known that you have the right to acquire all the child's medical records when you adopt him. He came into her home taking medication for hyperactivity. She knew he was troubled when she adopted him. I don't think that he would be any different if he was her biological child. Having bipolar disorder with psychotic episodes will not be "cured" by therapy and tough love. If he was her biological child, would she have abandoned him? Would she have "thrown him away"?

The most heartbreaking thing, I think, is the end of the article.

"Do you miss me?" she remembers asking.

"Yes," he said.

Just because a person is sick doesn't mean they don't deserve love and care like everyone else. Shame on her for making the decision to adopt him, and then giving him back when things got rough. Yet he's not angry at her. She doesn't deserve that kind of devotion. (Katee)

Friday, October 06, 2006

Good News for Charlie's Meds

Rx Outreach is a patient assistance program that provides medicines to help treat ongoing health problems like bipolar disorder. Rx Outreach is associated with Express Scripts. We found out about them through Charlie's psychiatrist.

They offer over 110 medications. It costs $20 or $30 for a 90-day supply. There are some income limits but they seem fairly generous. The program is available to individuals and families with incomes of up to 250 of the federal poverty level. For a family of four this is about $50,000 per year.

All great news except there are only two of Charlie's meds on the list. And some changes will have to be made. The Trazodone comes in 150mg tablets so that means he'll take two pills instead of three at bedtime (last month before he fell into the Donut Hole he was taking one 300mg tablet at bedtime...but then we had to scramble... following the bouncing ball...). Equetro is not on the list but Carbamazepine (Tegretol) is. We had to listen to the doctor tell us there are increased risks of certain rare side effects with Tegretol. One of the funkiest... Charlie's skin just might fall off. The Trazodone will cost $20 for a 90-day supply and the Tegretol is also $20.

Other meds on the Rx Outreach list that might be of interest to someone with bipolar disorder or depression: Buspirone (BuSpar), Citalopram (Celexa), Fluoxetine (Prozac), Gabapentin (Neurontin), Lithium Carbonate, Mirtazapine (Remeron), and Paroxentine (Paxil). They also have some controlled substances: Alprazolam (Xanax), Clonazepam (Klonopin), Diazepam (Valium), Lorazepam (Ativan), and Temazepam (Restoril).

You'll also note that while Charlie is on Klonopin, which is on this list, we can find it for $6.06 a month locally so we'll stick with Walgreens for that one. Now I just have to find a good price place for Venlafaxine (Effexor) and Mirapex. It's like shopping the weekly sale papers for the best price on groceries. (Kathryn)

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Dear Big Insurance Company, Please Charge a Fair Price for Prescriptions


Where do I find $100 to pay for a medicine that just last month cost us $7? This hike in price happened because Charlie's in The Donut Hole.

After racking my brain on how to come up with a Benjamin for a month's supply of Trazodone (it's an old antidepressant that's rarely used because it makes folks sleepy but that's why Charlie uses it as a sleep aid), I remembered that back in January before he had any type of prescription coverage we bought a month's worth of Trazodone for about $48. Why was there such a big jump?

The prescription in January was for 120 100mg tablets. His current script is for 30 300mg tablets. But still? I decided to call Charlie's GP and talk to his nurse, Doris. I explained to her that I'd like to get a prescription for Trazodone and take it to a pharmacy that didn't know anything about Charlie's insurance. She also thought it strange a medication would cost more with coverage than without. Doris agreed to check with the doctor and call it in to CVS for us.

When we picked up the 120 100mg tablets the charge was $40.26, including tax. Even cheaper than what we paid in January! Much cheaper than what using his insurance would have cost us. Granted, he'll have to swallow three tablets instead of one at bedtime but the savings is tremendous. Plus there are 10 pills left over. A little lagniappe as we say in Louisiana. (Kathryn)