It’s been a bit since my last personal update post. I don’t expect this to be super long, but here we go. At the end of my New York trip, I was experiencing some significant brain fog due to one of three supposed things: new medication Vraylar, Lamictal withdrawal, or not enough water with my lithium.
I haven’t had any negative side effects from Vraylar yet. Sometimes it can take a while for side effects to set in, but my psychiatrist seems confident that if I haven’t had any yet, I won’t have any. He was confident that my brain fog was caused by lithium with not enough water intake; that tracks, as the brain fog has dissipated since I started drinking 64+ fluid ounces of water a day again.
After tapering off Lamictal, I felt some mild to moderate withdrawal symptoms. I’ve described Antidepressant Discontinuation Syndrome on here before, as well as its classic symptom of what are called brain zaps–the feeling that your brain was momentarily electrocuted, sometimes accompanied by a falling sensation. I’ve had that plenty of times before, and I would describe the feeling of Lamictal withdrawal as similar, but different. It wasn’t so much of a sudden and temporary feeling, but rather a near-constant sort of buzzing sensation in my brain, like a heavy fog. Along with this, I was still generally dazed and confused. Luckily these withdrawal symptoms had faded between my time in New York and my trip to Colorado for my friends’ wedding.
Since before the time I was in New York, I’ve been experiencing numbness in my right leg and foot. My psychiatrist says that Vraylar can cause stiffness, but it’s not known to cause numbness. My primary had me do sciatic nerve stretches for 10 days, but the numbness has only become more frequent and uncomfortable. She ordered an EMG (electromyography) test on my right leg to examine the nerves, which is scheduled to occur next week. A next potential step is an MRI. The potential cause could be anything ranging from an inflamed nerve to an underlying illness or disorder such as MS. Currently my doctors seem more perplexed than anything else. I suspect everything will look normal, and this will just fall onto the list of unexplained symptoms I’ve had. Even so, I decided to get it checked out.
Emotionally, I’m doing… okay. I’m still very drained from my big trips; and today and tomorrow, I’m at a writers conference, so I don’t get to just rest yet. I’ve been streaming on Twitch, and even that has worn on me a little more than I’d hoped it would, which has been a little discouraging. I’m hoping to dial it back just a tad to recover without losing momentum.
My psychiatrist lowered my lithium dose at my last appointment in the hopes that it can be entirely replaced by Vraylar. At higher doses than mine, Vraylar doesn’t have as significant of an effect on mood; basically, we’re at the end of the line for whether or not it will be a sufficient replacement. Hopefully I can recover from my escapades a bit, and then we’ll know what steps to take next.
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