Jules ~ Sorry I haven't been around....we have had lots of drama on top of drama here....PLUS a little scare. After the excitement of opening night and my daughter having that upsetment with her BF on the phone she came to say goodnight to me saying that she had a big headache and on the way upstairs I asked what time she had to be up at the school and she answered that she would talk later that she had to get some sleep with the headache and then suddenly when she was in her room screamed for me....I KNEW that she was going to pass out and told her to get to the floor until I got there..

When hubby and I got to her she was passed out on the bed and pale....we asked her what was wrong and she mumbled that her heart was racing really bad and told us her pulse was in her neck. I took her pulse and it was so fast that I couldn't even count it....when I could it was about 180. She asked for water and her pulse was still fast, around 120's and she said she needed sleep. I had her finish the water and told her that I would check on her often.....I was nervous because I have read that the Seroquel can cause sudden cardiac arrest/stroke but more in the elderly.

Anyway....she went down to around 100 by morning which was still high and my friend who is a cardiac nurse said that she had read that with Seroquel you can have hypotension that causes fainting and when that happens the pulse will race to compensate and that she had a feeling that with the play and working hard 16hrs/day for the past 2 weeks that chances were that she wasn't drinking enough or eating properly which would make it even more likely for this to happen.

I will of course inform our pdoc tomorrow....I still feel that she needs to come down on the Seroquel because her brain chemistry is less manic than when she was first medicated and she may be taking more Seroquel than is necessary. We decreased it by 75mgs 2 weeks ago when she was having hallucinations which is common when on too much Seroquel so I am thinking that we need to go even lower. WE don't want to do too much because she has been doing so well and with all the stress she is under it's not a good time to make too many adjustments without upseting the applecart.

Anyway....MM seemed to relay exactly what I would have to you about the Lamictal....it is best to go slowly with the titration and if he worsens to take a step backward and go slower until at a therapeutic level. I am thinking that with the Suboxone may even increase the effect of the Lamictal and thus rendering that your son take even a lower dosage than the usual. But the usual therapeutic level is 100mg-200mgs. My older daughter is on 150mgs and the younger one is on 200mgs....the pdoc tried to increase it to 300mgs with her but she got worse and we went back down to the 200mgs. Like MM said, there is usually some worsening of symptoms with each increase in titration that will level off after 4-5 days and just before the next increase is due moods will indicate the need for more. You will know that things are good when that doesn't happen anymore and that he is finally at a therapeutic level.

I will check in again soon....oh, and the boyfriends are such a part of life that I wish I could be exempt from!! :dizzy: I just could use less drama...my daughter has her own show going on and one day I think I will cash in with the screenplay.

Oh, and BTW....in her second performance she came out on stage with no shoes on....the set was of a highly professional office scene with everybody dressed to the "T". A little girl in front of me said to her mom "look mom, that lady forgot to put her shoes on!!":eek: And I look and follow the feet up to my daughter!! Turns out that in the first performance one of her shoes fell off during a dance so she decided on her own that it would be best to go on without them.;) My friend and I were cracking up!!! Thought you would like the laugh too!!

~ IG (the one who has a daughter with a mind of her own:))

Hey, Jules....just bumping this up to check and see how your weekend went. Anything new with your son???

My daughters are doing quite well....the younger one's hallucinations and tachycardia have gone away since the decrease in Seroquel (I had a feeling that was the culprit). The pdoc still wants us to see a neurologist to rule out other causes of her symptoms such as MS....just another thing to worry about!!;)

Older daughter is doing quite well....made the Dean's list and really has improved since diagnosed and put on meds. There has been a 180 degree change in her which is such a relief. I can't believe that she will have an associate's degree in Hotel Management at the end of this Trimester!!!:bouncing: And how are your daughter(s) doing???

I just wanted to let you know that you are in my thoughts and that I am hoping that somehow you get your big break that you are looking for. There is hope, Jules.....a while back there I was losing all hope but things do change and I am praying that they do for you really soon.

Love & ((((HUGS)))) ~ IG:)

Yup.....those NGBF's (no good boyfriends;)!! ) Hubby calls him a slacker and we are just praying that she puts him out of her life so we have to bite our tongues most of the time remembering what a tdoc once told us..."NEVER say anything bad about the friends and especially the BF's!! If you do she will only want to defend him more and stay just to protect him from you even if she knows what you say IS true!!" So we bite our tongues ALOT!!!

Lately she pays her way and sometimes his which I don't like. I understand when he doesn't have a job then we tell her to pay her own way but there are times that if she wants to do something and he doesn't have the money she will pay for both of them which is quite often!! And.....now that he has a job the other day when she was out with him and they went through the drive through at McD's and she got a $1 item he insisted that she pay him back in school!! And.....whenever we enforce what we want her to do or not do while on the phone with him he is ALWAYS questioning her as to why....doesn't he get it....it's because we are her parents and we said so!!!

Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!:mad:

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that our younger daughter just went through some tachycardia and hallucinations that we feel were attributed to one of her meds (Seroquel). She went to a cardiologist who is playing it on the safe side by monitoring her over the month for any repeat performances since we couldn't duplicate it when she went to see him. (Her eho and EKG were fine)

She has had only one episode over the month since decreasing the med....she is hoping to get herself off of it and is working on that with the pdoc. I innately feel that she doesn't need the med either especially since we are having no breakthrough symptoms while decreasing it and the hallucinations and tachycardia have subsided. The pdoc, however, wants us to see a neurologist to rule out MS which is sometimes linked to BP as well as any other neurological condition (yet another thing to worry about which I may have already shared with you....if so I do apologize). We have an appointment in April for that.

So like you say....it never seems to end!! Brother is still holding his own, amazingly.....the Hospice team has never met anyone like him. His lungs are barely functioning but he continues to find the strength to make it through each day. He is certainly willing himself to be here for his family for as long as possible. He is still managing his own care and quite alert but his physical strength is diminishing day by day as is his breathing. But again, he wills himself to get out of bed into a wheelchair to shower and go to the bathroom.

Spring is almost here, Jules and the birds are singing away here as evidence of that.....it is a sign for us to hang in there and keep hoping for the miracles we need in our lives.

Hang in there and know that my thoughts and prayers are with you......ALWAYS.

Your friend ~ IG:)

[QUOTE=arlingtonaddict;3481439]IG, As a psychologist, I an attest to the fact that iit isn't some dumb 'pop psychology' nonsense.

"Women Who Love Too Much" by Robin Norwood.

It won't make her 'better' in terms of grief (not some 'quick fix') BUT may help divert a PATTERN, a future string of losers.

Arlington.....thanks for stopping by and the wonderful advice.:)

Just a little update for the two of you....there have been some interesting developments!!

My daughter came downstairs just before going to bed in tears saying that her BF broke up with her (I tried to hide the relief and think that I did a pretty good job of it;)) They have been fighting alot over the past 3-4 months....she seems to have been hanging on to him knowing that if she didn't have him that she wouldn't have anyone else to take up her free time (sadly that is true because she seems to emotionally make it that way)

Anyway....for quite sometime she has complained about him not enjoying his company but hanging on still. This time she was upset but told me that she wasn't as upset as in the past when they almost broke up. I think it is because she is working on using that upsetment to figure out ways to "fix" him for breaking her heart!!

I don't know exactly what is going to happen from here.....last week they took a break from one another and it only lasted a few hours.:dizzy:

So.....I think I will grab that book and see if she can read it in her free time.

I do worry because she did end up in the hospital after breakups with guys but that was before she was diagnosed and treated & she has been doing well in terms of stability so I hope that it won't affect that. She did complain of having some visual hallucinations while trying to go to sleep and even said herself that she thinks that they are coming out of stress. She hasn't had them for a few weeks now since lowering the Seroquel.

We see the pdoc tomorrow and will figure things out with him I guess.

Never a dull one around here!! Tomorrow should be interesting!!

~ IG:)

Oh my, MM....I am soo sorry to hear about your fall!! After all that you have been through I am praying that it is just your body shocked and nothing more. I recall having just gotten out of the hospital from having major colon surgery, a friend of mine picked me up since hubby was out of town. We stopped off at a convenience store and sitting upright was uncomfortable. So I used the handle on the side of the seat to recline it a bit and it went straight back!!!:eek: I felt this internal tearing which burned my entire abdomen and all I could imagine was that all the internal handiwork that the surgeon had done was torn apart!! Turns out that I was just fine. Hopefully the same will be true for you.

Oh Jules....I am soo sorry about all that your daughter is going through. I think it is a great idea that she speak to a therapist and hopefully that will help her through the pain of it all. How did things go today with your younger daughter???

Today was the longest day for me as a mom. Daughter went off to school and hubby drove her in. Her NGBF's (no good boyfriend's) father would drive them each morning so we wanted to ease her into all of this. She has a few classes with him as well so I KNEW that it wouldn't be an easy day for her.

When I picked her up for her pdoc appt. she was smiling and the first thing I thought was that she was back together with him. But she wasn't, she shared with me for the 45 minute drive (while she was driving) how free she felt and how so many people in school were there for her including some of her teachers. I was actually shocked and she even went on to say how great it feels to be single again and that she thinks that she is going to stay away from boyfriends because in just a short time she will be going away to college and doesn't want to go through all of this again.

I was so impressed with her emotional maturity but did forewarn her that she probably would have some sad days when this all hit her and that it would be normal and how proud I was of the way she was handling it and how much she deserved to be happy.

We saw the pdoc and he was impressed with the way she was handling things as well. Before she was diagnosed and treated something like this landed her in the hospital or led to self injury. The pdoc agreed that the decrease in Seroquel was doing her well and decided to decrease by 25mgs/week over the next month to bring us down to 250mgs. (We use to be at 575mgs) We also were impressed with her new self awareness in terms of working with the pdoc in figuring out the meds and any necessary adjustments.

We got in the car and within minutes she was in tears:dizzy: Apparently a song came on that reminded her of him....she applied new makeup and before it was even dry the tears came again!! It wasn't something I didn't expect, it was just a little sooner than I thought!!:) We went shopping and she tried on a bathing suit talking about how now that she was single she had to look good for the guys!! We got back in the car and again the tears. I suggested we get a bite to eat to get her mind off of things....we agreed on Applebees and to split some apps since she wasn't very hungry. We sat down and more tears :dizzy: We told the waiter that we lost our appetite and left. Went to the grocery store to get something she wanted....I ran into a friend and she came to me with tears rolling down her cheeks. Friend shared some breakup stories and she was soon laughing again.

We came home and she spoke with friends on the phone. She seems okay now and I KNOW that this is completely normal as she makes the adjustments. It feels so good to see her letting it all out rather than allowing it to stay in where there is no release. The way that I see it is that she is using healthy coping skills and that is HUGE compared to what we have seen in the past....really HUGE!!

Well tomorrow is another day and I pray that she continues to stay strong and realizes how much better it is without him. I am hoping that her friends keep on surrounding her so that she can continue to stand her ground on this.

Well it was an exhausting day for me and it is time to catch up with some much needed rest. Thanks for listening.

~ IG :)