Medication Change Made a Huge Difference

During this past week, one of the appointments I attended was with my prescribing psychiatrist at the VA.  We were concerned that the VA's mandate to lower all Citalopram HBR users' prescription to 40mg from higher doses would have a deleterious effect on me.  What they discovered is that the arbitrary reduction in dosage caused many guys to experience a significant amount of emotional instability that manifested as bi-polar tendencies.  The doc said I do not have Bi-Polar disorder but stated I needed something to specifically fight the depression that seemed to be winning out.
As a result of this, 100mg of Wellbutrin was added to my cocktail.  I won't lie.  I was really skeptical at first.  It's been four days and I can honestly say that there has been a noticeable difference in my behavior.  I was out all day with the family yesterday.  Here's what I did yesterday:

• Doctor Follow-Up After Septoplasty - The doc asked me how I was doing and I told him about the blood clots and heavy scabbing in my nose and my issues with sleeping and nightmares and intrusive recollections.  He responded by looking in my nose and taking a small suctions attachments and sucking all of the crap out of my lower nasal passages.  Instant relief.  The doctor also said everything was healing very nicely and that all restrictions on my activity were removed.
• Walk in the Park with Family - We immediately went to the park afterwards, meeting my parents there. All told, we spent almost two hours out there in the heat and walked a little over five miles.
• Grocery Shopping - After the walk, we went to the nearby Wegmans (where I work) and we got all of the shopping done that we needed to do.  About an hour later, we got out of there and headed home to clean up and prepare for an early dinner at my parents' house.
• Dinner and Dessert - We had a nice dinner with my parents on their back porch and it was very enjoyable despite the heat.  Afterwards we all went to a local lifestyle mall for ice cream.  Usually, there is a walk-in fountain in the middle of a small amphitheater.  It is a really nice little area.  We were all looking forward to letting the little one gallivant through the water but it was off.  We didn't know it was live music every Friday night.  I had finally had enough and we went home.

Yeah...couldn't have done all that in one day a week ago.  It wasn't that I didn't feel the anxiety and that I didn't have the urge to go hide in my hole.  Not at all.  The depression that made me infinitely more likely to lose the battle has been buffered a little already.  It is a nice feeling.  Granted, it was a lot of effort and I was exhausted by the time the day was over, but it was worth every moment.

The rest of today and, most likely the weekend, is mine to relax now.  I am going with mama bear and cub down to her parents' house.  We are going to go swimming and my fish, I mean daughter, will have a blast.  I am going to bring down my rug-hooking kit and get some of that done as well.  Then tomorrow is all mine. I am going to write my novel a large portion of the day.  Have a great weekend everyone!  I pland 

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