Milk, Thorazine, Herbal Tea (Part Two)

This is a new twist on the “how many ___ does it take to screw in a light bulb?”  Only today we are talking about psychiatrists and antidotes for depression/psychosis/anxiety.  It also could be a look into how many different family members see how many different psychatrists in a given week (or day).  For me, it was 3 and 2.  But I digress.

Grace has “issues”.  (See yesterday’s post for that definition.)  I had her counselor pick her up at school and meet us at the psychiatrist’s office for her appointment.  While we were waiting (Grace was with Dr. Point) I was saying that I really thought that Grace could benefit from a small amount of anti-anxiety med.  This led to a condensed version of yesterday’s post, the whole milk, Thorazine, tea thing.  The counselor suddenly looked relieved.  I hadn’t noticed her concern until I saw how relieved she was.

She leaned forward and said that she understood now.  Huh?  Apparently, out of the blue, on the way to the appointment, Grace confided that it was her hope that Dr. Point would prescribe herbal tea for her.  Counselor Jane had been curious as to where this could have come from.  We were sharing a good laugh when Dr. Point opened his door.  I felt a need to explain what was so funny.

I related the story.  “Herbal tea” he said, “what a great idea.  I wonder what she was targeting in the tea?”  I sensed that he was taking this way too seriously, so I explained that first it was milk, then Thorazine, but there were too many contraindications, so she prescribed herbal tea.” 

“Aah” he said folding his arms and leaning back, “desperation”.  “But what a good idea” he mused.

Alas for Grace, in addition to the tea which was such a good idea, he also thought that a mild anti-anxiety med might be a good idea.  I am hesitant to add it, but I really want to boost her arsenal in this transition time of terminating intensive services.

Warm Milk, Thorazine, and Herbal Tea…

Tom has “issues” (family code word for “psychiatric impairments”).  He has a psychiatrist.  Who is wonderful.  She is constantly helping us troubleshoot, adjust medications to fit symptoms.  She makes referrals as appropriate, consults with other professionals, etc.  All under the constraints of the already overburdened VA medical system.  Did I say that she is wonderful?

We saw her on Monday.  She was troubled by Tom’s newest crisis and trying to help sort through it.  Her first suggestion:  “Drink warm milk before bed.  The tryptophan is very calming.”  I pointed out that he already drinks almost a gallon of milk a day.  (He disputes this, but the evidence is clear when consumption is halved during his extended absences.)   “Oh” she says.  She brightens with a new brilliant idea, “maybe we could try some prn Thorazine”. 

Perfect, I thought, I’ll just dope him up when the going gets tough, he can calm down, sleep it off and it won’t really be like adding another regular major drug to his already major drug cocktail.  We will be careful and use it only prn “as needed”.   She orders 10 pills to be mailed to us.  Then frowns.  The computer is issuing a “critical warning”.  It might be too dangerous to mix Thorazine with the other meds.   She consults books, on-line warnings, finally calling the pharmacy.  They call her back, apparently there are cardiac implications for the proposed mixture.  That won’t do.  She cancels the computer order.  Back to the drawing board.  He can’t take Valium, or Xanax because of the respiratory risks. Hmm…what to do?  At this point we have been there for over an hour.  She becomes aware of the time. 

She brightens again.  “I know” she says, with a perky little chirp that makes us think she might have found a solution for Global Warming.  She looks at us and beams.  We lean forward.  She raises both arms upward with a gesture that says “This is It“.

What?  What is it? Striking herself on the forehead, like why didn’t I think of this before…”Herbal Tea!!!”  Huh?  “Go to the store, find some herbal tea that doesn’t actually contain tea leaves.  Read the labels.  No real tea leaves.  When you feel really stressed out, make some herbal tea and drink it.  There.  See you  (consults paper) next month?”

We were done.  Just like that.  The prescription for acute, psychotic induced anxiety?  Herbal tea.  (Read the label).  Are you following this?  First it was warm milk, then Thorazine (prn), finally landing at (ready?) HERBAL TEA!!  We have been so dumb.

What did we do?  We went to the store, headed over to the herbal tea section and read labels.  Tom settled on a “Blueberry Herbal Tea”.  Just in case, we got a back up “Apple Cinnamon” and I promised that I had some Peppermint at home.  Three choices.  I refilled my stash of Ginger Tea.  (I think that it calms my prone-to-ulcers stomach – but that might just be all in my head).  We had a cart full of herbal teas.  No one can say we didn’t take her seriously.

We went home and Tom made us both a “cuppa”.  To our amazement, he really liked the Blueberry Tea.  Didn’t feel any calmer, but he really liked it.

Merlin is so not a morning dog

I get up pretty early (5:40 am) most weekdays.  I get the cat (Zoe) up (she sleeps in a crate, well, “cat condo”), then Ursula (she sleeps in a bed), and I have tried to get Merlin up.  He sleeps in a crate in Freddy’s room.  But Merlin is so not a morning dog.  He yawns and stretches and curls back up.  So lately I have been leaving him there waiting for his voice to let me know that he is awake.  This bothers Freddy who would rather sleep then hear Merlin’s announcement that he is ready to get up.  So this morning I sneakily dragged Merlin out of his crate so that Freddy could get his beauty sleep, took him potty, and when I come back in who do I see?  Freddy, up and ready for the day, wondering why we are not going to the Y.  I can’t win.

I do miss the sauna and my friends there.  I have been going for therapy but at times different then my norm and still don’t want to struggle to dress there so for now I am showering at home.  Where there is no sauna.  Poor me.  But soon…

Bubbles self portrait

Bubbles self portrait

And I wonder why I have 8 million pictures on my cell phone.  When I actually look to see what is using up my memory, I find stuff like this!  (Lot’s of it).

Merlin

Merlin

Introducing “Merlin”.  He is half golden retriever, half australian shepherd and all sweetheart.   His birthday is New Year’s Day so he just turned one.  He has adjusted to life in our nutty house quite well.  The big cats have been giving him a hard time but he takes it all in stride and they have finally (apparently) decided that he is staying past the normal 2 week SPCA fosters.

We have posted a list of his “words” by the front door so we can all be consistent with his training.  Someone has put a lot of work into him and it has paid off.  The only major concern stems from his interest in making a break for it out the front door and enagaging in a big game of tag.  This is a big problem what with all of the cars whizzing down the street much faster than the posted 25 MPH.  This has happened twice and has stopped my heart both times.

We are training him in the backyard, he gets out for a walk a day and we will go to obedience school after basketball season.

Bubbles Plays Basketball

Here she is… She shoots, she scores!!  (Well, this shot didn’t go in, but she did make the first basket of the game), yeah Bubbles!!

Where has the time gone?

Wow, time flies!!  Zelda had to have an itty bitty shoulder procedure which has made typing difficult.  OK, full disclosure:  that wasn’t until 2 weeks ago.  Life just kind of got in the way of posting.  We did have a wonderful Christmas, got a new dog (pics to follow), and then had to say good bye to our beloved Papa who passed away on 1-14-08.

Tom went north to the funeral, the rest stayed home because Zelda couldn’t drive what with her shoulder issue and all.