Olanzapine again

[Amanda_George]

Been taking the lowered (7.5mg instead of the 10mg I've been on for several years) dose of Olanzapine for 12 days now and I'm feeling better, less paranoid and not even a hint of psychosis since taking the lowered dose.  Is that weird or a-typical or normal please?

If I'd still been taking the 10mg I would have felt paranoid every day, verging on psychosis by the middle of the afternoon and absolutely no motivation at all.  None of that has happened at all since I've been taking the 7.5mg though and I achieved more in 5 hours this morning than I used to in several days combined on the 10mg!

I know it's an AP not an AD but I've definitely noticed an improvement in my mental health over the last week on top of the motivation, no mood swings, less impatient, not at all angry etc - is that to be expected or am I being a-typical with my meds as well as my depression please?

I know you can't give medical advice and I'll try to remember to talk to Brad (my prescribing CPN) about it at the start of July, I'm just after some peer thoughts and opinions while I remember is all.

TIA!

[Pip]

Sorry, I've never been on that so can't comment.

[Amanda_George]

Okey dokey, thank you Pip.  I was wrong about the appointment with Brad - it's at the end of July instead of the beginning so I'm almost guaranteed to forget by then lol

[Pip]

Oh I know what I'm like for forgetting appointments.  Rick gets text alerts for his and he was due to see the cardiac nurse today so I had to go online as we couldn't remember which surgery he had to go to - there are 3 surgeries.

It ended up being a nightmare of a day as the cardiac nurse was concerned about Rick's angina.  He did tell her we have been very stressed for months, he loses his temper quickly, mood is very low and is feeling down about hearing loss - it's an 8 week wait for hearing aids from the day he had a hearing test.

About an hour after that appointment Rick had to go to one of the other surgeries as the cardiac nurse arranged that.  An ECG test was done by one of the nurses then he saw one of the doctors.  She was concerned enough to make arrangements for Rick at Darlington Memorial Hospital.  End result is Rick has been told to keep calm, his medication is being tweaked and will be having a follow up appointment.

[Amanda_George]

I was getting confuzzled between the ultrasound appointment (4th July) and the CPN (26th July) lol

It sounds like your surgery is like Steve's - 3 surgeries in one building but all merged together?  Steve's surgery struggled to get a single star in our City and County Councillor and he foolishly asked for comments from other people about it.  Steve struggled to give the surgery a single star in his review too lol

[Amanda_George]

Been on 7.5mg for exactly 3 weeks now and I'm still loving it.  No psychosis or even paranoia, no mood swings and more motivation too... so glad I asked to try the lower dose now!

[Pip]

Great news 

[Amanda_George]

Just got back from seeing Brad.  He's officially taken the 10mg of Olanzapine off my repeat prescription and I'm now officially on 7.5mg.  He wants to see me once more at the start of September, 'cos apparently I'm still in the iffy zone for AP reduction but if that goes OK then I won't be taking the 10mg any more.  He suggested going down to 5mg, but I'm really not comfortable halving the dose, especially as he said that people do tend to relapse on 5mg so I wanna keep my psychosis at bay and not risk it yet.  Maybe in a few years when I've lost more weight, but right now I'm happy with 7.5mg.  I came out of hospital in 2003 on the top dose and I'm at less than a third of that now, so I really don't want to push my luck.

I'm not saying never, just not right now is all.

Cherry Coke's are on me for the rest of the day in celebration!   

[Amanda_George]

Tomorrow marks 8 weeks taking the lowered dose and I still haven't had a psychotic episode or paranoia or anything even approaching it.  Got 4 months worth of Olanzapine to start taking on Wednesday 'cos of my woopsie... Brad ordered 2 months supply but I'd totally forgotten that so ordered another 2 months supply when I got home, so I'm good to go until the start of November now!  Yaaaaaaay!