Thursday, September 3, 2015

A Brief Listory

Happy September to Cyberspace! And to you, of course. I am SOOOOOOOOOO excited for the end of September. Why? Well!

  1. I'm tired of Summer heat! I like being cool and wearing hoodies and taking my hair out of it's ever-present Summer Ponytail.
  2. Fall and Winter are my favorite times of the year. I love Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years....and St. Andrew's Day!
  3. I WILL BE FREE OF JURY DUTY
I thought for today's Wordsday Thursday, I'd do a bunch of lists concerning my history... a Listory, if you will. The alternate name would, I suppose, be "Hist," but just because Pottermore sorted me into Slytherin, I don't have to act like it!


A few months ago, I was in the Medicine Shoppe waiting for a prescription to be filled (I'm there all the time) and I was struck with curiosity about my medical file... more specifically what and how many medications I have taken over the years. I must say, the staff was incredibly obliging and printed me out a list of all the prescriptions they filled for me over the past 10 years (they couldn't go back any farther). Now, keep in mind this is including repeats- say every time a doctor wrote me a new prescription for a medicine I'd been taking a while. It was 51 pages. Granted, there were quite a few one-time meds: for colds and flus and stomach problems, and painkillers for having my Wisdom teeth removed. Still, the remaining list is quite impressive, and I'd like to share it with you! There are a few on the list that are very similar, but not quite the same things. Everything in the list was used to treat, in part or in entirety, my Schizoaffective/Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders. Also, keep in mind back when this list started, they just thought I had an awful case of depression. It's been a long journey!
  1. Fluoxetine
  2. Lithium
  3. Welbutrin
  4. Risperdal
  5. Budeprion
  6. Lexapro
  7. Levothyroxin (used to counteract the damage caused by taking Lithium)
  8. Abilify
  9. Invega
  10. Geodon
  11. Lunesta
  12. Seroquel
  13. Risperidone
  14. Lamotrigine
  15. Lamictal
  16. Depakote
  17. Topiramate
  18. Divalproex
  19. Diazepam
  20. Zyprexa
  21. Clozapine
  22. Citalopram
  23. Numerous facial creams to combat my Lithium-induced acne (nice try!)



If it seems like I'm bragging, I am. Well... not exactly, but I'm proud of how far I've come. I remember one night, several years ago, I looked down at my hand just overflowing with pills that were just barely keeping me functioning, and thought, "I don't want to do this for the rest of my life. Something's gotta change." And it did! I finally found the pills that make me feel good and alive, and I'm doing better than ever. If anybody reading this is going through a similar struggle, just keep fighting! You'll get there, I promise.


My mind is really not a very quiet place. I have music on repeat. All. The. Time. And stupid, annoying music too! I mean, I know from time to time we all get "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" stuck in our heads, or some new song that's played on the radio all the time, but I've got a few "favorites" that keep inexplicably popping up:

  1. We Wish You a Merry Christmas (this affects me all year long, I can't figure it out)
  2. The Meow-Mix jingle
  3. This tune from the movie "Amadeus"


The top news headlines I remember most vividly:
  1. "AMERICA AT WAR"- I was actually home sick with a cold on September 11, 2001, so I saw the news about it all day. This headline kept popping up and it's bracing frankness was more than a little bit terrifying
  2. "NEW MEXICO ON FIRE"- More recently, when we had the Track Fire here in New Mexico, that same summer there were just dozens and dozens of fires all over the state. On the news at night they'd show a map of NM and it was almost entirely made up of red areas, indicating out-of-control wildfires. It was scary and depressing.

And finally, here is a list of all the world disasters that I shouldn't have lived through, but managed to pull through anyway:
  1. Y2K
  2. Swine flu
  3. The Mayans calendar prediction of the World ending in 2012
  4. Jury duty
Just kiddin'.... kind of.

;)

Sarah

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