abilify, abilify, abilify say it three times and tap your shoes together!

ok so i'm still manic,but managing it. got sleep last night, about 6 hours or maybe 5.5. will have to take a nap later.

the mania is now under control and not further triggered by abilify as i'm on a higher dose. the longer you take it and higher d0oses it starts to do its threepart performance: mood stabilizer, helping lower depression, and antipsychotic! seroquel is supposed to do that too but it has a lot of long term effects that could happen later, like diabetes, etc.

so now i take wellbutrin 300mg, abilify now up to 10mg and seroquel now up to 200 mg. (with klonopin when needed).

i fully admit that my weird desire to start abilify (the idea of not taking depakote again was longstanding and the idea to maybe replace it was not weird but good sense care taking that seroquel is not enough and i did not want to have to stay on high doses of seroquel. with depakote my seroquel dose was 75mg before i went off to get pregnant.)well the wierd part of it, about 20% as to the 80% that i think was well founded and supported by my doc:
1. i liked the name for the first time i really liked a drug's name. i have to probably take these drugs for the rest of my life, so cut me some slack that i focus on the names. any bipolar knows when you get manic words MEAN more than when you're not. associations to the name: ability, abilify like liquify or other words like that , the "ify" i think means, to make, so to make more able, then other associations: ability, amplify, i think i'm spelling the drug's name wrong. i think it's "abilifi" anyway if i go more towards fantasy with the associations: able to fly, able to lift out of depression and mania, able lift...
2. i had an intuition that it would give me a hypomanic lift, just from knowing that unlike the other mood stabilizers it is not going to knock me out of slug me into sluggishness...
3. i even like the blue color, it's a really nice blue, not like the color of wellbutrin which i take the generic of anyway and wellbutrin smells bad. it's a tiny pill shaped like a rectangle but rounded at the edges. the blue is sort of cerulean blue, nice and bright for a bright new day of normality, not that i ever feel normal.

ok enough of that. i'm exagerating for effect and i know this post seems manic but it's partly due to my lack of posting and wanting to catch up and missing writing and enjoying it. i like words and playing with them when i'm not in an episode too.

next post: the episode and where i'm at with it...

the magic box

feeling a little better today:
an actual positive hopeful post to balance out last night's...
i have a special box that i put some special little objects in and then write down goals, wishes, hopes and fold the paper and date it and put it in the box. it's called a goddess box.
i also put in goals and hopes of a few friends. they write what they want to manifest and i stick it in the box without reading it. every couple of months or so, i open up my papers and check to see if i have accomplished or gotten what i wished for. most of the time the goals get put back in, not yet accomplished, but once in a while they actually get done or happen and i throw out the paper and write new ones...
i just opened the box after over six months and saw some that had wonderfully come true, like getting pregnant and a few other things.
some of them i put back, like the ones related to elvis being healthy, to continue his good health.
so tonight i wrote a bunch more of them and dated them and put them in the box. i was amazed also to see i had so many "wishes" written by about four different friends, so those went back in too.
most of the goals and wishes are selfish ones like to have a good birthday with peace of mind, improved relationships with certain people, and certain career goals. but then there are ones for denzel and elvis and the baby i added, as i had not checked the box in over a year.
and some very ambitious ones for the world, like peace in iraq and things like that...
so the box is filled up again with hopes, dreams and good things to ask for the universe to manifest.
if anyone wants me to put something in there for them, let me know and i'll write it in for you...
i believe the things i put in for myself are strengthened by sharing the magic of the box with others...
i forgot to put one in about taxes and finding a good accountant. my finances are a mess... woops i'm ending on a bad note.
patience... that's in the box too as is "faith"...

biggest challenge of my bipolar pregnancy...

i've been wanting to express this in comic strip form for a while; it somehow could have come out better, but it's the best i can manage at 1am...
it is confusing enough dealing with bipolar episodes and constant monitoring of whether i'm manic, hypomanic, depressed, psychotic, mixed state etc. whether on or off medications, but being pregnant and bipolar throws in a real extra challenge -- hormones!
then the question becomes "am i being normal crazy hormonal pregnant or am i being crazy made more nutty by hormones but not at all norrmal for a pregnant lady at al, in other words, bipolar crazy and pregnant at same timel..." in some ways it's not that difficult. when i have symptoms that women describe having after having the baby or when they have postpartem issues, but i'm still pregnant, i know this ain't normal for being pregnant... when i feel crazy but it turns out, as denzel puts it "you're just exactly normal for being knocked up and so many months along! how does it feel to be just like everyone else at this stage! ha ha. i know how you hate to admit you're going through the same stuff every other hormonal pregnant woman goes through!!!" he likes to rub that in. i do admit that if i'm going to suffer through being bipolar and pregnant, at times i enjoy that i'm having a very unusual pregnant experience that brings me to deep levels of awareness of all the transformations i'm going through and that most pregnant women are protected from going to these places and lucky in that they don't suffer the torments of it, but at the same time they don't get the special experience of being so in touch with all this intense unconscious material that if you live through it without destroying yourself, the fetus and your partner and anyone else along the way, is quite an extra special experience... along with that i also get to have all the other regular normal pregnant hormonal stuff. so sometimes i confess i bask in my own admiration of my special crazy and pregnant status. i can't get too grandiose because denzel is around to bring me back down to earth...

elvis back to his old self! me back to messier self...

the good new is that elvis is doing much better, back to his 14 year old puppy self, even doing some of his adorable puppy like things like getting enthusiastic puppy energy and bounding around before going downstairs to his walks. some of his slowness last week especially on wed. was due to the rabies shot which i found out makes you exhausted and stiff in the muscles.

he's now getting special beef pill pocket treats after meals to see if he can digest them ok and prepare him for getting cosequin, a glucosamine supplement for arthritis. of course i'm partly wondering if i should even give him the pill as he seems much better, but the vet noticed arthritis when she examined him even though he moved fine when i walked him around in front of her.

the main new stress about him is that i have to get his teeth cleaned this month and he has not had that done yet. it's bad to let it go further as his teeth are not in great condition but they have to put him out for it and of course i'm super worried about it.

in general i think my trip into the dark and familiar zone of the more crazy parts of my mind has ended for now with a return to better places, but i'm very anxious and tired, totally exhausted. i had fine plans to go through piles of things on my desk and try to do some cleaning as things are more disorderly than ever but i got home from an outing late afternoon and went straight to bed. i'm constantly tired and have no motivation. all the stereotypes about being pregnant and nesting are bullshit where i'm concerned.

i've been trying to resign myself to the baby arriving in a messy disorderly apartment and that plenty of slobs bring up happy children. it sucks that the media paints a picture of organized expectant parents happily painting special things on the walls of a sparkling baby room and a clean neat organized apartment or house. when i was growing up i used to feel trapped in a family of neat people and hated being told to clean my room. now i'm worried my poor baby will be trapped in a chaotic totally messy disorganized house. i've lost all hope of things getting pulled together. we only have a few more months left and i can barely keep my papers in order and pay bills on time, much less pick up clothing and keep the kitchen neat, a bare minimum. the idea that we can reorganize the apt. and build storage space and transform it in time for the baby seems hopeless. i'm realizing i'm still slightly depressed but in this case the feeling of resigning myself to the worst case scenario seems a lot more comforting than having grand ambitions for our place and making room for baby. you can't be disappointed when you resign yourself to the reality of your own limitations. it's also just too hard to motivate or imagine that i can motivate when i'm pregnant and constantly tired. just keeping up with the bare minimum of one day at a time is a huge challenge.

the idea of a baby shower is scary and daunting. more stuff to put in the middle of the apartment. there's no more room under the bed or under the big dining room table so anything we get or are given for the baby will just go in the middle of the loft.

i have rescue fantasies of some magic person coming over and fixing everything. i've watched too many reality tv show of makeovers. denzel would never let someone come and reorganize our place anyway. but i admit i've had fantasies of waving a wand and everything being organized and fixed in two seconds with no suffering of dealing with the worse chaos that occurs when you start moving things around to reorganize in a place that does not just feel like a big close/garbage dump but in fact is. tonight is indeed garbage night. it's usually my thing to take out the trash or make sure denzel does it but i don't really care. i know how far i've descended when i can't find favorite items of clothing and dont bother looking for them.

i woke up this morning with grand plans to have new energy and tackle my desk and area and clothing areas and closet but that was a fantasy. i'm back to not caring and feeling the ultimate lazy slothful feeling that is a big part of my personality. as i get older i only get worse as i get better at living in messier and messier and more disorganized environment. sometimes it seems to mirror my inner situation and gets me down even more. sometimes i think this is actually a strength. all the neat freaks out there with perfect and organized apartments are sitting on total fear of the real chaos that is life and their own emotions. at least i'm totally aware of and living in my chaos and lack of control or anything. but i'm wondering how great it is to bring up a baby in this kind of environment. i guess i'll just have to hope that the baby will see that life is messy and disorganized and uncertain and chaotic but love can be grown in very messy places and love is messy anyway...

any words of encouragement or support greatly appreciated. i''m not sure this post conveyed all my fear and anxiety and exhaustion with worrying about how to deal with the mess of the environment and the big fear of the bigger mess of figuring out how to manage my life when the baby is here and be a good enough mother. i had great hopes of drawing a fun comic about elvis but that went out the window with my big plans of getting organized. i'll probably walk him and make a bigger mess getting ready for bed. sometimes i notice i retreat to bed to hide from the rest of the mess. somehow the messy bed is a slight haven to hide from all the clutter and mess.

tag, i'm it... very late in the game...

ok. better late than never. thanks to nicole for tagging me. i hope i know how to insert the right codes for this. i'll of course tag people who visit me often. sorry if you've been tagged already. i guess you don't have to do this twice!

well ok. i realize what the problem is. I am using safari on a mac so i will have to just list the website addresses as they don't seem to give me options for making links within this post. sorry.

INSTRUCTIONS: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so.

1)Baby Moxie
2)Kicking You From The Inside
3)Third Time Lucky?
4) Just Crazy Enough To Try
5) bipolar notes from underground (off meds)

Next select five people to tag: (if you haven’t done it already) i have to just list the web address as i am not capable of linking directly. sorry
1) This Side of Reason; http://mydisplaced.blogspot.com/
2) Coming out of the Dark; http://bipolarmadness.blogspot.com/
3) Bipolar in the CIty; http://bipolarinthecity.blogspot.com/
4) Kill the Goat; http://saintvodkaofthemartini.blogspot.com/
5) The Wife of a Schizophrenic; http://the-wife-of-a-schizophrenic.blogspot.com/

What were you doing ten years ago?
may of 1997. i was probably dealing with a depressive episode and avoiding getting involved with anyone romanticwise...

What were you doing one year ago?
may of 2006. dealing with having just gone off meds to get pregnant. i was about two months into no meds and having a lot of sex. probably also worrying about my dog as he had diarrhea a lot around that time and needed special medications... maybe i had already started this blog. can't remember. dealing with anxiety for sure...

Five snacks you enjoy:
1. ice cream, ice cream, and more ice cream, often with peanut butter
2. potato chips, (the ruffles kind, salt and vinegar, the expensive kind with exotic flavors) with whipped chive cream cheese on them
3. really creamy hummous on rice cakes or pita
4. chocolate, dark or white, preferably with peanut butter
5. pickles of course...

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:
1. when i'm 64, the beatles
2. denzel's special song for our unborn baby all about her name
3. jingle bells
4. michelle ma belle, the beatles
5. other beatles songs too numerous to list
(basically i'm terrible at singing and have a bad memory but the beatles were part of my childhood.)

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. get a huge new place, like a brownstone or building in our current neighborhood with a great baby room, lots of storage, a studio for me that's ideal, a great studio/workroom/music room for denzel, an outdoor space for doggie and us and a wonderful roof top and great basement!!!
2. pay off all my debts immediately and invest some of the money wisely...
3. plan a wonderful trip (maybe a short two week one for now before baby last minute and one for when she is around 8 months old to take her with us) and find the perfect caretaker for elvis who will take extra good care of him and have a lot of vet knowledge while we are away to housesit as well in the above mentioned mansion!
the trip would probably include a visit to japan
4. help out some starving artist friends with money, not purely a gift, but as an investment in their projects to help them get the projects off the ground...
5. buy land and build a really cool country house that denzel would design!

Five bad habits:
1. laziness, procrastination and disorganization, they all go together for me
2. eating too much ice cream and unbalanced diet, even and especially while pregnant
3. not putting things away, general slobbiness
4. self hatred
5. complaining and worrying

Five things you like doing:
1. being with my dog
2. drawing and painting
3. nothing (literally, i like sitting and doing nothing, staring into space and not moving)
4. camping with denzel
5. watching the food network channel

2 comics...

these comic strips reflect the two sides of my life at present. the more healthy support system of two healthy males in the house who express themselves freely and move on without dwelling and festering and obsessing and feeding on their own anxieties...
and me and myself and my crazy mind that gets me into all kinds of trouble...

a fantasy moment in bipolar pregnancy...

100 things about me and elvis...

i see people do these lists and thought i'd try one. but please read the comix from yesterday's post and comment there as it was a very big announcement for me!

1. i am pregnant and due in sept. of 2007
2. the baby will be a virgo born in year of the pig
3. elvis is a leo born in the year of the monkey
4. i am not married and don't want to get married
5. denzel and i will be together until one of us dies
6. i'll probably live longer
7. i think i will live to be about 111 years old. i had a psychic premonition about it.
8. i was depressed in high school but did not tell anyone
9. i went to a therapist for the first time my second year of college
10. i had my first manic episode when i was 20.
11. i became psychotic and was hospitalized.
12. i had another big episode several months later when i was travelling.
13. i was hospitalized in a clinic in paris.
14. the clinic in paris was good. the hospital in new york was awful.
15. in new york they tied me to the bed in a room alone.
16. i thought i was in heaven waiting for everyone in the world to die.
17. after everyone died my ex boyfriend i was still in love with was supposed to come and rescue me.
18. i started taking lithium after the second hospitalization.
19. i was diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder.
20. i was put on haldol during both hospital times.
21. haldol sucks. i felt like a zombie.
22. i was still manic after i got out of the hospital in nyc.
23. since then i have had many manic episodes and mixed states but never gone to the hospital again.
24. i found elvis in a pet store when i was manic.
25. this is exhausting and i'm only on number 25.
26. when i was five i told my mother, "i'm never getting married and i'm never having kids."
27. i'm afraid of needles, procedures, examinations and doctors.
28. i quit therapy about two years ago after 12 years with the same therapist.
29. i got pregnant a year and a half ago by accident and had to have an abortion because of the medications.
30. i went to a group therapy of people with depression and bipolar in 1999.
31. i talk a lot but i'm shy and don't like meeting new people.
32. i'm more comfortable with being around one or two people.
33. i hate going to big group dinners.
34. i've always been very rebellious and don't like being told what to do.
35. elvis hates rain and baths.
36. when elvis was a puppy he was scared of canes and umbrellas.
37. elvis is very jealous of denzel.
38. i don't like going away because i don't like leaving elvis behind.
39. i am very vain about my hair.
40. it's been less curly now that i'm pregnant.
41. i hate the cold weather.
42. i am lazy and procrastinate things.
43. i like lying in bed and hiding from the world.
44. i've become more open to country music.
45. i'm listening to roseanne cash's new album black cadillac right now.
46. i have a terrible sweet tooth.
47. i don't like exercising and have not done any in months.
48. i love walking everywhere.
49. i hate driving and don't have a driver's license.
50. i failed the driver's test twice a long time ago.
51. i don't have any motivation to get a driver's license and enjoy having other's drive me places if i have to get in a car.
52. i'd like to live somewhere that has no winter.
53. when i was in college i said i was never going to move back to new york.
54. i moved back to new york several years after college and have been living here ever since.
55. i love taking baths.
56. i love camping outdoors.
57. i have a phobia of going away from home and have to be forced to go on vacation.
58. elvis cannot go up and down the stairs because of his back and knees so i have to carry him.
59. elvis is one of the top ten reasons for getting up in the morning.
60. if i did not have elvis i would truly be out of shape.
62. i'm not sure how i will take elvis and the baby out at the same time as i have to carry both down the stairs.
63. i'm afraid of post-partem depression.
64. i never thought of myself as maternal until now.
65. i've had fantasies of giving birth to a dog.
66. i'm hoping to have a girl but of course a healthy boy will be just as great.
67. the times i'm most anxious about are the first year of the child's life and then the teenage years.
68. i think the happiest year of my childhood/teenage years was age 7.
69. i have tried lsd and psychedelic mushrooms and some other things.
70. my lsd trip was really crazy and intense and later i realized it was similar to a manic episode.
71. there are a lot of things i could say on this list that i will not.
72. my first crush on a famous unavailable person was david bowie.
73. my first crush on a real unavailable person was a friend of my brother's. i was four years old.
74. my brother is nine years older than me.
75. the first person i kissed was a scottish boy two years younger than me.
76. i was sixteen and in germany on a summer program.
77. i had a crush on a sweedish guy my age and wished it had been him.
78. elvis bites the air repeatedly when he wants a walk.
79. elvis does not mind this cold weather.
80. i wish i had a backyard for elvis. he is so happy to go outside.
81. last time i was manic i cried because i felt so bad that elvis' life is so limited.
82. last time i was manic i got a whole idea for a story from taking elvis out and staring at the pee from other dogs on the sidewalk.
83. i still have not written and made the pictures for the story.
84. it's called the grey day.
85. about ten years ago i got an idea for a children's picture book called "the flying poodle".
86. elvis was the main character and he flew places.
87. his owners in the book hired a medium to follow him in a magic chair to find out where he was going.
88. i start many things with good ideas and manic enthusiasm but then give up on them.
89. i feel dissatisfied with my success thus far in life.
90. i wonder sometimes if i had not been bipolar would i have accomplished more of my goals by now.
91. i like taking days off and staying home wasting time and hanging out with elvis.
92. i sometimes think of myself as an underacheiver.
93. i am afraid of certain people reading this blog and figuring out my real identity.
94. i'm craving a cappucino right now.
95. i love watching old movies from the 30's.
96. if i had a past life i was around during the 20's. i was a silent movie actress and died young.
97. i am not and have never been a morning person.
98. at one of my jobs i'd have to get there by 8:30 and i would find time in the morning to lie on my coat in my office and nap.
99. i feel very blessed and happy that i'm with denzel and we're having a love child!
100. elvis is one of my top inspirations to be a better more loving person.