Saturday, September 28, 2013

Taking advantage of an unpleasant situation

I had a wisdom tooth pulled yesterday. It had a cavity - which wasn't that terrible, but the tooth above had been pulled a while ago, so my dentist thought I should just have it pulled. I took Friday off, to give me three days to recover, and had it done first thing in the morning.

I really didn't think it would be that bad, as the upper had not been. But when I told the oral surgeon that, he said this one would be worse, as the tooth was more buried. He had to put stitches in afterwards- which I don't remember him doing last time- and he even gave me a prescription for tylenol with codeine (which I didn't fill).

It has been more painful, but I have been managing with tylenol, naproxen, and ice packs. And I napped a lot yesterday too. Naproxen can raise lithium levels so I try to not to use it too much, by as my level is only 0.6, it could go up a fair amount and I'd still be okay. I just can't use it for prolonged periods of time.

What I decided to do over this 3 day "vacation" is to lower my Zyprexa. I started Thursday night. I cut my 7.5mg pill into quarters, and took 3/4ths of a pill (and I took the larger quarters, so I'm taking a bit over 3/4 of a pill). And I am taking a little bit of klonopin. So far it is day two, and I feel fine.

Right now my goal is just to get back to 5mg, I really haven't decided about anything else. When I had the mixed episode this year and went up on the Zyprexa, I didn't do what I usually do- which is to go back down as soon as it was contained. I think it was the wrong decision. But I just wanted things to be easy for a little while, I just got complacent. I was afraid to go down. I thought I was doing well. But I really felt like my mind hasn't been as sharp since I have gone up, and that never went away. I was hoping it would.




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