Meds

Haven’t figured out the best way to do this yet. For now, the list below is as close to current as I can keep it. Dosages are once daily unless otherwise indicated. What follows is a brief rundown of my prior psychotropic experiences.

(I’m taking a six day course of Prednisone starting 6/17/08 for the ongoing issues with my back and leg.)

• Bupropian 300 mg X (for Wellbutrin XL 300 mg.) — depression discontinued 5/16/08 — Restarted 6/24/08 per doc to combat spiraling depressive symptoms.
  

• Sertraline 100 mg (for Zoloft 100 mg.) — depression discontinued 4/29/08
• Chlord/Clidi 5-2.5M (for Librax 5-2.5 mg) — IBS (I’m only taking this when my stomach acts up. So far that’s less than once a month. 7/14/08)
• Either Celebrex 200 mg twice daily or Meloxican 7.5 mg twice daily (for Mobic 7.5 mg) — backdiscontinued 5/5/08 – over priced crap is less affective than over the counter ibuprofen.
  
• Cetirizine Hydrochloride 10 mg (Zertec) — allergies
• Gabapentin 300 mg 3 times daily (for Neurontin 300 mg) — back added 4/21/08 discontinued 5/10/08 (detoxed from 3 down to 1 over six days.
  
• Seroquel XR 200 — depression, insomnia (hypomania?). — added 4/28/08 — doubling up as of 5/16/08 — up to 800 mg 5/19/08 — Cutting dosage to 400 mg 6/30/08
  

Between the fall of 1999 and the spring of 2006 I had a fairly extensive relationship with psychotropic medications. It started with 50 mg of Zoloft. By early 2000 I was up to 100 mg Zoloft. I did fine at that dosage for over a year. The fall of 2000 was the best period I’d strung together probably since 1993. I attribute that to the Zoloft and the runner’s high. I was running five days a week and felt sensational.

By Christmas of 2000 I was beginning to have health problems. An annoying pain in my upper back was making its way onto my radar. I also developed what I called a chronic sinus infection. At the very least it was chronic sinus congestion.

Over the winter and spring of 2001 things declined at a pretty steady clip. I didn’t have health insurance because of a clerical error on my boss’s behalf. The insurance plan was ultra-crappy so it might not have made much difference. So I was going to the quickie clinic and getting antihistamines, antibiotics, and Lortab for my sinuses. Somehow I became convinced that the ever increasing back pain was related to the sinus thing. End result, I ignored the back pain and concentrated on the sinuses.

Then one day at work I came within a hair of passing out. I thought I was about to have a seizure and that it was all related to a nasty head injury I’d incurred some 21 years earlier. To make a long story short the back and the head are both screwed up but the problems aren’t related. The back pain was what was causing me to get lightheaded, dizzy, pale, unable to speak, or even walk. I’d have sworn it was my head though.

The sinus thing leveled off or I just got used to it. The back continues to get worse to this day. Once the injury is aggravated the pain comes on quick and hard and becomes excruciating in short order. It made it impossible for me to work steadily. You can imagine the problems that brought with it. The worst was that my depression plunged me to new depths.

By the fall of 2001 I was taking 200 mg of Zoloft. This amazed not only my internist but my brother in law. Bro is a journalist but seems to think he’s an expert on all matters pharmacological. By spring of 2002 I was taking 200 mg Zolfot, 225 mg Effexor, and 1 mg of Risperdal. I was still getting worse. So I added Wild Turkey to the mix.

I maxed out at all of the above plus 45 mg Buspar and either 100 or 200 mg Trazadone. (Two of the white Trazadone pills every night.) As some point Wellbutrin 300 mg was substituted for Zoloft and Absolut Vodka for Wild Turkey Bourbon. Around 2004 I added crack cocaine to the mix. Needless to say I was a mess by spring of 2006 when I managed to cold turkey the whole show. (It was a terrible two or three months to be sure.)