Vertigo

'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.' What about when you do something with a bad result, but then do it again? Well, in my case, the bad result was pharmacological. I took my normal meds a while back, which - at least on the average person - have some major CNS (central nervous system) depressing effects. Basically, it 'slows' your body down, and it's the prime reason I can get to sleep... just about ever. Well, I've been 'doped up' in the past - lots of meds being needed causing lots of CNS depression. But I haven't been that way in a long time. If anything, I've had more trouble getting asleep than staying asleep. It's been somewhat of a theme, and so I've piled on a couple other things - melatonin, occasionally clonidine, namely. I raised my Seroquel to try and control my more recent (i.e. within past several months) hypomanic episodes, and while I've noticed the episodes lower in frequency, now my overall depressive episodes have surfaced a bit more here and there, and I still have a sleep problem.

So, the first incident, I took my Seroquel, Lamictal, melatonin, and a Norco (hydrocodone/acetaminophen). That night, soon after taking the combination, I was flickering in and out of consciousness, having memory lapses, stumbling around, having severe vertigo, and eventually just went out like a light bulb. While, sure, the goal was to get to sleep, at least eventually, I do remember one thing very, very clearly - I went up the stairs and into the kitchen, suddenly out of the haze in a moment of clarity, and I started worrying for my life that I was too overly medicated, that I might never wake up should I go to sleep, and would die in my sleep. For a little while after that, I sat on the couch just trying to keep my eyes open so that I none of that would happen. Eventually, I got to the previously mentioned destination - 'out like a light bulb' - and obviously woke up several hours later. While, when I woke up, no problems seemed to have occurred, I clearly remembered what had happened just before going to sleep.

Last night.... (by the time this will be posted, the night before, really) I did the same exact thing. I had been having a flare up that just wouldn't go away, and so - in my mind - there was no decision to be made; I took a Norco. I think a few hours later, I took my normal, nightly meds. Virtually the same thing happened to me. I - embarrassingly enough - dozed off in the bathroom, and when I was just conscious enough to get up and out of there, I headed for the kitchen. The vertigo seemed even worse, and I was essentially having a flash back to the first incident. In seconds, I got this horrible nausea and raced (or, rather, drunkenly stumbled) to the bathroom and spilled my guts.

So... if I don't learn that my meds in combination with a Norco is a bad idea by now, I'm probably pretty stupid. I checked drug interactions on Drugs.com (admittedly, there's no guarantee on the reliability or completeness of their database, but it's not a bad idea), and... sure enough, there were two, and they both involved hydrocodone. Hydrocodone in combination with both Lamictal and Seroquel, according to their database, can cause serious CNS depression (each given a 'Moderate' alert.) If each one is moderate, then I just wonder what both of them together makes.

I don't want to take Norco within even several hours from my nightly meds, anymore, but I don't want severe, persistent pain while I'm waiting for my meds to kick in, or while I'm trying to sleep. Normally, once my meds put me to sleep, I'm out, and few things fully wake me up and keep me up. But once I'm up, or if I'm still trying to get to sleep, it's hard to get back to sleep. Pain can keep me from getting to sleep, and if I get up, be troublesome when trying to get back to sleep.

Seems a bit like a dilemma to me; perhaps it's a crossroad where I need to figure out how to deal with this. During the day, Norco has no problematic side-effects, and during the night, I'm more vulnerable to problematic pain, but I need to get to sleep and stay (as) stable (as I can), so ditching my normal meds isn't an option. NSAIDs and regular, over-the-counter meds like acetaminophen (Tylenol) just don't do anything, and those are typically the 'safe' avenue for pain relief. Although, the Piroxicam does seem to have a marginal, beneficial effect, and I definitely noticed I'm worse off without it, it doesn't actually solve anything. Even with Norco, the fibromyalgia pain can pierce through, though make it tolerable.

I'm gonna have to talk to my doctor. I've been rather safe and careful with Norco so far, but I possibly could still be a bit safer. I'm gonna actually try to learn from this, rather than stubbornly dismiss it. It's not good for me, and it's honestly pretty scary. I don't want to ever feel like my heart is just gonna stop all of a sudden anytime in the near future, that's for certain.