I had a really good Doctor's appointment last Monday for a medication check. This is a short appointment to see if my medicines are still working correctly. I am very fortunately that I haven't had to deal with alot of medicine adjustments. The 2nd medication we tried works for me. A year and 1/2 ago the additional OCD made things even better. During the appointment I show her my mood chart and notes from the last 3 months. Since I am still dealing with the memory issue I had one page back and front of notes plus 2 back up documents. It seemed like over kill to me, but I knew that I would have trouble answering accurately any questions she had if everything wasn't written down. I don't have to go back until Dec.
One really hard thing about mental illness is getting a correct diagnosis added to that finding the right medication. There are no cost efficient brain scans for bi-polar. Behavior is the easier way to diagnose. However if a person isn'tin the hospital under observation it is up to the person who is having mental issues to explain accurately what is going on inside their head. Right. There are very skilled Dr. who do the miraculous and figure out what is going on with mentally ill patients like me. However when I started this process I used my coping mechanisms and hid my problem. That was not helpful and it took a long time to get to the bottom of 'what was wrong'. Now I am much more eagar to cooperate with the system. It is an on-going challenge to accurately express to the doctor in 15 minutes what is going on with me. That is the main reason DH and I both see last year's hospitalization as a blessing. They recognized the OCD very quickly and kept me long enough to get medicine in my system. Now I spend quite a bit of time prepping for my med. check appointment. I look through my mood chart and symptom notes. I also check in with DH and other people on my support team.
The holidays are coming up and there are a few stressor out of my control. My goal and hope is to keep on track through the next 3 months.
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