Geodon Sounds Like A Pokemon Name

So, I've been on the Geodon for about two weeks now, and it's been two weeks of experimentation, with interesting results. Here, I'll share:

I was supposed to take half a dose twice a day for two days, then increase to the full dose twice a day. Instead, I started off with a full dose once a day because the medicine comes in capsules, not tablets, so I couldn't break them in half.

When I was on the Risperdal, I was taking the smallest possible therapeutic dose. When I was on the Abilify, I was cutting what the doctor gave me in half. The Lamictal works for the bipolar disorder, and the Wellbutrin takes care of the depression and boosts my baseline a bit, and the third medication (Risperdal or Abilify or Geodon) is just a kicker that gets rid of anxiety and irritability and what I call "mini" mood swings. Just a kicker. I only need a tiny bit. So when he said to take Geodon twice a day, I decided to try once a day to see if it was enough.

Emotionally, it seems like it is enough, and I feel great. There's been no anxiety so far during these past two weeks, and I don't feel irritable at all. I asked Scott if he could tell the difference, and he says I've been acting exactly the same as I was when I was on the Abilify, so psychotropically this is working out just fine.

The issue here is when to take it. The first thing is, I have to take it with a meal. Not just a snack; it needs to be a full meal. A study I found online said the ideal size was 500-1000 calories, and that it was better absorbed by the body around 1000 calories. The problem with this is that I don't eat meals that big very often. I did yesterday when I had lunch with The Kwiddens and we went to a buffet, but even when I go out to eat it's usually more like 500-800 calories. So if I take it in the morning, I have to make sure I eat breakfast, which I did most days anyway so that isn't much of a problem. If I take it at night, I'd have to take it at dinner, which is a bit early because...

...it makes me sleepy about an hour after I take it. Which is why it wasn't working out for me to take it in the morning, since it would kick in about the time I got to work and even after a Rock Star AND a Mountain Dew I was falling asleep at my desk. I was unbearably sleepy, and I had to stay at work anyway. It was painful to be that tired. The other thing about taking it in the morning is that after I get sleepy, if I had an opportunity to take a nap (like on weekends), then my left leg would twitch and I wouldn't be able to nap. I've NEVER not been able to nap. It's super weird for me.

So I thought to myself, okay, I'll take it with dinner and see what happens. I figured I would get sleepy about an hour after dinner, but at least I'd be awake all day at work (and that ended up being true) and perhaps it would help me sleep.

Well, it didn't help me sleep. In fact, last night I felt sleepy but couldn't get to sleep until I broke down and took a Benadryl to knock myself out. The super fun part was, I woke up at about four and oh, look, my left leg was twitching so badly I couldn't get back to sleep, so I just lay there for a while...twitching...and finally I just got up and went to work early.

So, summary: if I take it in the morning, I get sleepy at work and can't for the life of me take a nap, either because I'm at work or because my leg twitches. If I take it at night, I can't sleep because my leg twitches.

Scott wants me to keep myself on it for another week or so to see if these side effects go away, so tonight I'm going to try taking it with dinner and two Benadryls and see if that keeps me asleep.

Either way, even though I'm running on only about five hours of sleep today, I feel perfectly awake and alert. I'd forgotten how it felt to feel this awake, since I'd been on the Abilify for a year and that was what was making me sleepy. It feels good. That's why I want the Geodon to work out for me somehow.

That, and also because it's a quarter of the cost of the Abilify.