husband is losing it, and could be lost

[crazymama30]

So husband has been having a rough week to say the least.

Monday he passed out while trying to fix a toilet, then again later that night.

Tuesday night he was slurring his words, stumbling, and could only hold his fork with a fist. We went to the ER as I thought his depakote levels were too high, they checked that and his tegretol levels and they were fine. Said nothing was wrong with him. He thought it was 2008, thought it was the 28th of the month, then the 5th, finally got the 6th.


Today when I got home he looked good, better than he had in a long time. He said he was going to work out at 5pm. I had to leave for work at 7:30pm. I called him before I left and he said he was leaving the gym. I texted him from my clients house to put the leftover dinner away and he said yes. I get home at 10:15pm and his car is not home. He has not been home yet. I call him and he said he has been lost for 2hrs, driving around and almost ended up 40miles south of us. He is slurring his words, and sounds horrible again. He says he is just down the road, but that was 15minutes ago. If he is not here soon I will have to call the police or do something, and I am so tired of this ****.

I hope he is telling the truth, and I wish I could completely trust him. I am so angry, scared, and just mixed up right now.

 

[crazymama30]

Ok, so husband just came home. No driving untill further notice. Wow.

 

[DammitJanet]

Can I ask some questions of a rather personal nature but these are to try and help you as another bipolar person?

1. The slurring of the words....is there a chance that he is using alcohol or using too much of his pain medications? Did he just increase or start a new pain medication or start any new medication? Or increase any medication? Is he on neurontin or lyrica?

2. Check his pain medications and see if it is possible the pharmacy messed up and gave him the wrong dosage of his medications. It is possible. Or any of his medications. Just happened to me this last refill! Luckily I caught it before taking any.

3. If none of the above, there is a problem with people who are in pain and have some sort of mood disorder where they end up in this deep fog and it is like swimming threw molasses. You can almost get lost in your thoughts and become like on an auto pilot and forget where you are. It is something almost like a dementia at times. You just cant think. It is so damned hard. You want to. He isnt doing this on purpose. We call this Fibro Fog in Fibromyalgia but you could fit it to any pain disorder. Here are the criteria:

Symptoms of Fibro-fog

The severity of Fibro-fog fluctuates from day to day, as well as from person to person. The following is a list of possible signs and symptoms:

• Mental confusion and fatigue
• Loss of short-term memory
• Inability to concentrate
• Impaired thinking
• Absentmindedness
• Inability to recognize familiar surroundings
• Disorientation
• Inability to comprehend written or spoken words
• Trouble with directions
• Short attention span
• Acquired dyslexia (includes difficulty speaking known words)

Do a search for Fibro Fog and I think you will be astounded at how much it describes your husband.

 

[susiestar]

I am glad he is home safe. No more driving seems like a good precaution. Dis they check him for a stroke when he was at the ER? Seems like it could have been a TIA (mini stroke) or something similar?

 

[Josie]

I am sorry. I hope you can find some answers soon.

 

[TPaul]

Wow, glad he got home safe. I can imagine exactly how you felt. My wife was gone for 3 hours a few weeks back. I had no idea where she had went, and was about at my wits end. She had some of the children with her, no cell phone, not much money with here, etc...

Came home with I thought you knew attitude!!! Needed duct tape to keep me from wanting to wring her neck, LOL LOL!!

Hope you can find out what is making this fog,
T, Paul

 

[TerryJ2]

Wow. Scary. My heart was racing, just reading your note.
I agree, no more driving.
Great post, Janet. You're wonderful.

 

[flutterby]

How scary. What psychiatric medications is he on?

Do you think a trip to the ER is warranted?

 

[Abbey]

Scary. I think this needs a thorough doctor visit. Don't know how old husband is, but those are many of the same symtoms I see in my father in law with Alzheimers. Toss in a beer or two and it significantly magnifies the problem.

I hope you have insurance and can get him a proper diagnosis.

And...hugs to you for having to deal with it.

Abbey

 

[crazymama30]

Well, I really wish I had for sure answers to your questions Janet. He has been ok'd to take 6 percocet a day (1 every 4hrs) I have seen him take too many in the past and never ever act like this. Usually they have a backwards effect on him, they wire him, make him irritatable, and he gets super chatty--almost hypmanic. I asked him if he had taken any other medications, drugs or anything else but he says no. Do I believe him? Not really. He says he had 1 beer, the psychiatrist has oked that, and he did not smell like he had more--it was a very faint odor but I would not swear to that either.

Heather, he is on 2,000mg Depakote at night, 400mg Tegretol, 1800mg neurontin twice a day(can be pscyh but is used for his nerve pain), 1mg Clonazepam every morning.

The fibro fog? That does describe him on a day to day level very well, maybe knowing why will make me more understanding instead of just wanting to kill him.

Later in the evening he became very paranoid, was hallucinating, I am not going into details but he was certainly not in our reality. It was very intense and scary. I almost called the police, in retrospect I should have but it was almost midnight and would have scared the kids so much. I slept on the couch, I do not know if he has slept at all yet and it is 7am. I know he tossed and turned all night, his pain has been really out of control and that seems to correlate to when his BiPolar (BP) is our of whack. I am calling his psychiatrist this morning. I told husband that last night when he cleared a little and he did not argue.

The ER is worthless, I should have taken him last night and then maybe he would have ended up in the psychiatric unit. I have taken husband in to the ER with chest pains radiating into his left arm, very pale and sweating and they did not find anything. Severe bloody diarhea, dehydrated and weak, and they never found anything. Took him several years ago and he had passed out. Tried to do a spinal tap to rule out brain bleed, ER doctor botched it and it was a bloody tap and then had to go through all kinds of other crazy test.


When we were there they did not check for anything other than blood levels. I was too exhausted to insist on it, I just get so discouraged with them.
I will check to see if he is asleep before I leave to go work. I hope he is asleep, if he is asleep then he will stay that way as he sleeps like the dead. I have no idea what I am going to do this afternoon as husband has an appointment with his pain doctor at 2:40pm and difficult child has a psychiatrist appointment at 4:00 that takes a 1/2 hr to get to. I now have to take husband to his appts, so that will be tricky--will be ok as long as the pain doctor is on time.

Abby we have insurance, good insurance, but the problem is when you have multiple complicated medical issues managed by more than one doctor no one sees the big picture. And when you have a mental illness everything gets blamed on that.

I really was not ready for this. I have dealt with people having psychotic breaks at work, but it is so different when it is one of your own.

 

[DammitJanet]

I would say thats a hell of a lot of medications but people say that about me too with what I am on. You can never tell what will make one person loopy and out of it and another person you cant even tell they have taken anything. Now one thing...I do take all my medications at night and they make me quite spacey so during the day I dont have that immediate effect. I know I couldnt take the neurontin during the daytime because it would cause me to be drowsy. I tried it...no go.

He isnt on an AP either and if he is having any sort of psychosis he probably needs to be. I found even a low dose of seroquel to be very helpful.

 

[crazymama30]

Janet he developed tardive dyskinesia from geodon, abilify reactivated it, seroquel was way too sedating, lithium worsened the tardive as did Lamictal. The neurontin did not cause sedation, but the tegretol does and I suspect the depakote is. psychiatrist was trying to stop some cycling, and I am not sure it worked.

He really has not been taking the neurontin in the morning as he does not wake up untill 3 or 4pm and really does not have time to take his morning pills. He has not reliably take the morning ones for the last several weeks.

He has not had any tardive symptoms for several weeks, maybe even a couple of months. At his last psychiatrist appointment psychiatrist gave him some samples of abilify--it really was the best ap he has tried--maybe we can try it again and hope that it does not bring the tardive back.

 

[BusynMember]

Ihave had symptoms like that when my medications were too high. If he isn't drinking, I'd look into that. Have levels drawn.

No, don't let him drive.

I hope things get better...fast!