I'm going to call a halt to trips out for a little while. Though fun, they are frequently expensive and have drained my bank account. This hiatus won't be for very long, since you're paid reasonably well to participate in studies. The first check I received was for $440 and if I participate in two protocols, I stand to make around $2000 to $3000 all told. I may need to wire home for money just to be on the safe side. While Washington DC isn't the most expensive city I've ever visited, then again the cost of living and price of even the most routine things is significantly more than home. Blue states and blue cities are substantially more costly.
Meanwhile, the powers that be are waiting for records from all of the six other hospitals to which I have been admitted over the years. I wrote them all down in the first batch of paperwork I received, which was promptly filled out and mailed back four months ago, but apparently the staff didn't receive everything they requested. The culprit behind this delay is one of the hospitals in Atlanta where I spent three days recovering from minor bout of mania, which is so badly managed and averse to doing even the most basic of tasks that I know it'll be a while before NIMH receive its records. It's a little sobering that this is the sixteenth time I've been on a psychiatric ward but I try not to let the sheer number of hospitalizations make me depressed.
I've been promised a decision as to which medication I'll start receiving by the end of the week. Since things move rather slowly here, two events will lengthen my stay beyond what I was initially anticipating. a) My primary doctor is leaving at the end of the month for another job, meaning that it will take a while to assign me to another doctor on staff b) As mentioned before, waiting on the records from the Atlanta hospital will delay the decision as to which medication they believe will be the best fit for me.
Today will be a reasonably nondescript day which I will take to read, exercise, listen to music, and generally stare into space.
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Been there, done that. And I too live in a red state so getting records together for Disability hearings was hell. I get that read a little, sleep a little and stare into space thing. Also when I was last hospitalized they had me nearly lobotomized with drugs. Major Mania isn't easy to treat, at least not here in Mormon land. At times I felt more like a prisoner being punished rather than a terribly sick person needing medical attention.
I'm following this journey of yours with great interest and hope that you will be a pioneer that leads to more humane treatment for us bipolars, and better drugs.
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