Geodon Failure

Well, the last two days have been NOT FUN.

Having a symptom show up less than twenty-four hours after bumping the Geodon dose up to three pills, was rather suspicious.

When undressing for the evening, I noticed a speckling of tiny bruises on my upper left thigh, in a V and then a dot farther up, almost as if something had traveled a path in my veins, or bled along a path, which freaked me out. I began wondering about strokes and other things, which is rather EXTREME, even for me with my anxiety disorders and panic disorder.

I literally thought I was going to DIE, so I took a Lorazepam, as directed, for agitation. I left a message with her office the next day, because I HAD had my last appointment with her on a Saturday, I figured she might pick it up (I marked it urgent) before she left for the day. Apparently she didn't.

Anxieties in full swing, I applied some cognitive behavioral techniques to calm myself down, a bit, as well as having talked on the phone with my mother-in-law.

Later in the day, I continued with the second day of the new dose of three pills, hoping nothing untoward would happen, but knowing that if it did, I'd be calling the prescribing psychiatrist's cell phone Sunday morning at a decent hour, because TWO symptoms in a row would be too much to ignore.

Well, something happened, within 4 hours of taking the second dose. With apologies for the graphicness, I had a bit of blood before a runny stool. I grew VERY alarmed, and was in panic mode, "I'm gonna die of a stroke, because if it's bleeding in various parts of my body, it could decide to bleed ANYWHERE!", being the type of thoughts I was having.

I took a Lorazepam again this night, as well as I requested for my husband to give me a priesthood blessing. What was said in the blessing calmed me down completely on the score of worrying about further symptoms from the Geodon; there would be no further ill effects, so I had faith that what was said in the blessing was true, because that's what I was raised to believe. To trust in the Lord, and the priesthood that the men in the church have to use in His name. Part of trusting in blessings like these is to also make use of modern medicine, and to not just leave everything up to faith; you are to still see your doctors, and make use of them as you normally would, so I did not cancel my intentions to call her in the morning about the symptoms. It is what a prudent person would do, after having had symptoms of unusual bleeding or bruising after recently upping the dose of a new medication as directed.

I called her this morning, and I'm to lower the dose back down to two 40mg pills, and to keep her informed about how things go.

Let me tell you, spending two days wondering if you might die, has not been fun, even though you KNOW it's the panic disorder, possibly aggravated by agitation-caused side effects of the Geodon, because you normally don't go to such extreme conclusions based on a little side effect or two like that. You would worry alot, but not think you would DIE right off the bat. I am SO grateful for blessings, too.

Now all I've got to worry about is the pain of taking off the tapings they did to my knees at physical therapy . . . oh, and what mood stabilizer are we going to try next?

As well as, getting to sleep is going to be harder, because when I was on two Geodons previously I was on the last of the Seroquel stepping down, and now I'm not, so I won't have as much sleepiness effect from the Geodons without that. Although they do make me a bit sleepy.

The low-dose aspirin I take, half a day away from the Geodon, that the pharmacist had said wouldn't be a problem with the Geodon if I only took ONE, since the Geodon bottle said to not take with aspirin, that I take for up to 6 months post surgery for blood thinning reasons, well, I think there was perhaps some interaction between the two of these to create the symptoms mentioned above. I can't remember if the psychiatrist knows about the aspirin or not, I think she does . . . . I'm going to not take today's, just to be safe, and then resume the aspirin tomorrow.