I am just back from meeting Dr. Johnson, my new psychiatrist. I am so happy with our first encounter and felt like he took the time to be extremely thorough and get to know me. He spent an hour and a half with me, reviewing the timeline I provided him and screening me for bipolar, cognitive function, depression, suicidal ideation, insomnia… you name it, he probably asked me about it! I felt completely open with him, and we even discussed sex and money.
He does not feel that I am Bipolar II and will be sending a letter to my PCP to advise her of his findings. He’s prescribing 100mg of Gabapentin (Neurontin) which is an anti-convulsant but has also been used to treat sleep maintenance insomnia, with a much lower chance of weight gain as a side effect than Remeron or Seroquel. I won’t take it tonight since I have personal training at 5:30am tomorrow morning and don’t want to experiment with sleep when I have tp be up so early, but I will plan on taking it for the first time tomorrow night. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
I am so pleased with Dr. Johnson and how invested in me he seemed, despite the mixed reviews of him I found on the internet. He was thorough, attentive, and his views towards medication and treatment align with my own: less is more.
As far as the TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) investigation goes, it’s something we might look into after getting my acute insomnia needs out of the way, but at the end of the day, we’d still be looking for the drug to treat my insomnia, regardless of what might be causing it.
All in all, I feel incredibly optimistic. But I also feel a crash coming on. I was holding out for this appointment today and all my energy seemed to have reached its terminal velocity and it’s like okay you made it to your appointment and now let’s sleep. I have chiropractor and Pilates after work, early bed, hopefully a good weigh-in tomorrow morning (although it seems like the morning after a vigorous workout my weight doesn’t move a whole lot) and an early morning personal training session with Sarah. After work tomorrow I have therapy, and then my first hiphop dance class! THEN… it’s Gabapentin time. So maybe I can make it one more day.
In homage to yesterday’s goal dress post, I’m wearing a bright coral blazer… color does wonders for my psyche.