The whole insurance business seems so, well, crazy. Usually people are begging for inpatient treatment and being told, "Well, all we have available is a therapist you can see once a month." Wouldn't it be cheaper for them for you to see a therapist rather than something more intensive? Anyway, good luck with it. Seems like every time something like this happens you just have to keep pushing and eventually you get what you need--it's like a test to see if you really really really want it. I can't imagine how frustrating that must be. I mean, it's not like you're begging for Vicodin, for crissakes!
Today two significant things happened: my Humana card came in the mail, and THAT's the Medicare Part D plan I'm supposed to be enrolled in, not the one that's been screwing everything up, so I took it to the pharmacy to be inputted. After that's cleared up, I can go about getting a supplemental plan. Unfortunately, the guy who can help me is away all week.
The other significant thing was, that over a week ago I refilled a prescription for Dexstrostat, the low-dose amphetamine I take early every morning. I was given a bottle of unfamiliar pills, and the pharmacist (a fairly new woman) told me it was the prescription, but it didn't look right, and at the bottom, it said "Generic equivalent of Adderall."
I've been taking it for five or six days, and during that time I have been increasingly, violently manic. Of course, I didn't put it together, since I thought it was the same meds, but it bugged me that I'd never seen it on the bottle before. This past weekend I felt like an absolute maniac, like I was backsliding EIGHT YEARS (and today is my late father's birthday). I dragged myself to an AA meeting this AM and bawled, then came home and looked up the drug on the computer.
Turns out it is a completely different drug, for ADD! And it's THREE different kinds of amphetamines, and technically I am taking a HUGE DOSE. Most people take 5 mgs. a day, I have been taking 20 mgs. every morning! Not to mention it conflicts with most of my medications, my mental illness, my seizures, high blood pressure, you name it. So I called the pharmacy and asked for the owner (who I usually deal with). He was baffled and had me bring in the bottle. Turned out the computer picked out the wrong drug when the other pharmacist typed in dextroamphetamine.
God, how do most mentally ill people SURVIVE?
I have been feeling, the past two days, like I haven't been taking my depakote (the bipolar drug), even though I have. I see my psychiatrist tomorrow, at least. He was away for a month, but came back last week. He also can't help me until I get a supplemental insurance plan, but he has some recommendations, at least. Tonight I was supposed to go with my husband to a party but since I feel like I'm missing a layer of skin, I didn't.
My wonderful service dog went with me to the AA meeting in his little blue vest (he is wearing his snow suit in the picture above) and he seems to have been emotionally knocked out by me. He usually has the energy of five dogs, but today all he has wanted to do is lie down and cuddle with me.
The strangest moment was when I was putting on my shoes after a nap (I basically collapsed after drinking a cup of coffee), and my husband came into the living room. We had agreed he would walk the dog, but he didn't even have the leash in his hand, and my dog started to duck under the coach! Little psychic bastard! :) Luckily I grabbed his harness before he could escape, so my husband leashed him and dragged him out the front door. How did my dog know?
When I sit here and write, he lies curled on the couch, or if the cats will let him, the chair nearest the computer. He is just slightly too big to sit in my lap, darn it, at least at the keyboard.
