Sorry I haven’t been posting much. Pain, exams, the usual stuff. I have lots of fun and exciting things to post about Pumpkinhead, Mother’s Day, my new nanny , etc., but I’m in a ton of pain this week so it’ll have to wait.

The good news is that after months of weird side effects like calling my son’s head a hat or Jim, Joe or the table a piano (soooo impressive at work!), suffering from wild mood swings, breakthrough bleeding, and drinking gallons of water to ward off potential kidney stones from the Topamax, the neurologist has concluded that, indeed, I am too sensitive to this medication. He says that 100mg twice/day is a “child’s dose.” If that’s the case and I was practically manic at that dose, I’d hate to see what I’d look like at 200!

Anyway, I was concerned he’d put me on a TCA, which cause massive weight gain, but I’d forgotten about Cymbalta. It was one of the first medications I tried. My pain came back strong after 6 weeks on 30mg, but I didn’t want to go up to 60 because of the anti-Bow-Chicka-Bow-Wow side effects (really, really ANTI). However, after almost a year of trying a bunch of other things, Chapin and I both agree that, as important as that is, I am NO FUN in pain and that needs to get resolved.

So… Doc told me to quit the Celexa cold turkey and start the Cymbalta. Taper the Topamax down over a week’s time. By this time next week, God willing, I should sound more like my old self. And, hopefully, some of my pain will be relieved. I also have an appointment tomorrow for accupuncture to see if that helps (thank you to those who suggested it). In addition, I’m considering a Myer’s Cocktail, but the first visit is $200 and each cocktail is $144!!! Could be very helpful, but !

P.S. I am still using the homeopathic remedies I mentioned, but at 1/2 capful per day, it is a sloooowwww process and, in the meantime, I’m hurting!

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I had a roux-en-y gastric bypass in 2001 and am now suffering the often unadvertised consequences (severe malnutrition [iron, B12, D, calcium, serum protein], peripheral neuropathy, etc.), along with nasty neurological side effects from the medication they are using to try to treat the neuropathy (which makes law school so much easier, I tell you!)

Fortunately this week everyone is writing my blog posts for me. MeltingMama, another young mother who had the same surgery four years ago and who is suffering similar malnutrition issues (except she also has hypoglycemia) has posted a really well-done post on why she would NOT have a roux-en-y gastric bypass again. I encourage those of you who read my blog to hear about the WLS stuff to view her whole post here. For those of you who just want to hear her story, view this:

My story is the same, complete with iron infusions, B12 shots, etc., except that I was 21 when I had the surgery and I had it because I grew up with a morbidly obese mother who couldn’t play with us much. I wanted to have healthy pregnancies and be able to run around with my kid. 100+ lbs down, I can do that somewhat. But when the neuropathic pain brings me to my knees, I typically just want to lay in bed with my law books and not do anything with my arms or legs. When I had the surgery, the doctor talked for maybe 2 minutes about vitamins and then moved on. He basically said, “Take a multivitamin and calcium and you’ll be fine.” I did. I wasn’t.

I agree with MeltingMama completely. I would not recommend Roux-en-Y to any healthy, vital, person. If the LapBand had been widely available in 2001, I would have done that. (Caveat: I do believe there is something age-related here. My mother, aunt, and I have all had Roux-en-Y and my mother and aunt aren’t having these problems. My mother had it a year before and my aunt had it two years later. I don’t know why they aren’t facing these issues, but I think there could be an age and/or hormone link since MeltingMama and I are both young women.)

Hopefully this info is helpful to someone out there.

WARNING: This is another one of my depressing health-related posts. Don’t read it if you’re sick of hearing me whine.

I am now going to do something completely against my nature and try a homeopathic treatment that my therapist has recommended. Basically it’s distilled water with “frequencies” injected in that work against the bad stuff your body’s aura shows are out of balance. But the stuff that my aura gave off without her even knowing about it is very telling and interesting and I suppose it’s worth a shot. At least it’s something that won’t take time (whereas accupuncture appointments or other things would). And it’s not too expensive.

The rational side of me says this is completely nutso. But I’ve read up on this and a lot of people seem to think that this “healing” comes to the healers through God so the faithful part of me wants to believe that if this therapist has been put in my life to suggest this to me, perhaps I should be open to trying it. Have any of you ever tried this? I really do want to have more children sometime in the future and I really want to get off these yucky meds. The past 9 months of pain from the micronutrient-deficiency-related neuropathy has really gotten to me. The pain is just not going away, even with the latest increase in Topamax dosage a few weeks back, and I’ve been trying all weekend to get my brain to concentrate on this appellate brief I’m trying to finish and I just can’t wrap my head around it. This has to stop, so I’m desperate. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome, from the WLS community or others.

That’s the word I’ve been looking for. Tonight I was trying to put Pumpkinhead to bed and I said, “Okay, now, get up on the car.” Of course he looked at me like I was crazy. I think I may be doing that at work which may, of course, be why certain people think I’m a little nutty right now.

Anyway, thanks to Beth for this hilarious site with all sorts of information about the various neurological medications out there. I’m on Topamax right now, but I was on Neurontin last fall before it stopped working in January. Here’s part of what CrazyMedz has to say about Topamax:

Topamax’s Typical Side Effects: The usual for anticonvulsants. A pins & needles effect that usually goes away after no more than a week or two. Weight loss and appetite suppression – but please note that not everyone gets this side effect. Sodas and other carbonated beverages will utterly taste like ass, so you may as well give them up now if you’re considering Topamax. Memory loss, aphasia (weird words coming out in place of what you meant to say or write), word find problems (not being able to recall the names of people, things or concepts), and a general cognitive impairment that has earned this drug the nicknames “Stupamax” and “Dopamax.”

Apparently it also interferes with the effectiveness of hormonal methods of birth control I learned today as my cycle started on the first day of my third patch week of Ortho Evra. NOT good. Add one more thing to the list to worry about.

Anyway, isn’t it ridiculous that the medication that is supposed to be helping to stop the pain (instead of painkillers) causes so many side effects that it’s practically worse than the pain itself (although really the pain itself is soooooooo much worse, but I forget when I don’t hurt how bad it is when I do)? I met with a nutritionist last Friday and she put me on a wonderful new regimen including some new injectibles and several chewable vitamins so I’m hoping that when those come in later this week, I’ll be able to get started and within a few months the neurologist can start to taper me off these nutty drugs and get me back to the smart person I once was (you know, the competent, intelligent, motivated one who took the LSATs and got into law school in the first place?!?)

UPDATED TO ADD (now that it made the Roundup): I spoke with the neurologist Friday and he agreed to put me back down to a lower dosage of Topamax because the side effects of the higher dose weren’t good and the pain was controlled fine on the lower dosage. I think he was trying to prevent the rebound pain cycle I was having (six weeks of the med working and then wearing off) by raising it from the get-go but I was just a littlecrazy the past 10 days on the higher dosage (weepy, paranoid, hyper-defensive, etc.) Chapin even suggested going back to the libido-killing tri-cyclic meds for pain management because that would be way preferable to this weird body-snatching med that has given him a 15 year-old teenage girl for a wife, complete with cat-like bitchiness and cystic acne. Hopefully the lower dose will work because other than my emotional state, the drug works great.