Crushing this new year.

Happy (much belated) New Year (solar and lunar), y'all!

Every year I swear that I am going to be a more productive blogger. That I will write at least one post a week—preferably two. I do well for a couple of months and then I happen. This year I have skipped the two months of increased productivity entirely. I find that I have not posted anything for just shy of a month. Instead of castigating myself I have decided to be a little gentle with myself and also to explain what has been going on with me for the last month or so.

I’ve got the fog in my noggin.

A few months ago my Adderall seemed to stop working very well. I had a very short window with good attention followed by a pretty steep drop off accompanied by fatigue and a very foggy brain. My psychiatrist and I discussed options, and we determined that I should try Vyvanse as it is a more gradual medication with less of a fall off than Adderall can have. It can apparently help with binge eating disorder (BED) as well. I’ve never been formally diagnosed with that particular disorder, but my history with food suggests that I likely have it. Can’t hurt to have that in my medicine cabinet, I suppose. The only problem with Vyvanse is that it has no generic until at least August 24th of this year when the patent protection lapses. Which means that it is thirty-seven times more expensive than the generic Adderall I’ve taken since I was first diagnosed with ADHD. When it becomes available as a generic it should be much cheaper. Should being the operative word. I started on Vyvanse late last year when my deductible and out-of-pocket totals were already met, so I have no idea what my new prescription will cost this year. We shall see.

My doctor started me out on a low dose of Vyvanse for ten days, two increasingly higher doses for ten days each, and then a higher dose for twenty days. During this time my ADHD has not been well-managed. I feel like I have the attention span of a gnat. Today he just prescribed me my hopefully final dosage. In the time since I wrote the last paragraph, I got a message from Walgreens saying that the cost is $370.57 for a month’s supply—so unless I qualify for a manufacturer’s coupon, I will probably have to get back on the far cheaper, but increasingly less effective Adderall. And that has it’s own share of problems. For instance, there is a national Adderall shortage, so god only knows if I will even be able to get back on it in a timely fashion. Even if there is no supply issue, I will have to go through titration for that drug again, which could take many weeks. Until then, my brain is a foggy mush. Fingers crossed for the coupon, and that this dosage will start to work for me. Soon. Like yesterday.

In addition to the general poorly-managed ADHD, I was sick last week with a mystery ailment that was not Covid, nor the flu, nor strep throat. I had a terrible sore throat and some congestion, fever and chills, but no sneezing or coughing—so it was probably not a cold either. Whatever the virus was that took me down last week it was a doozy. I truly thought that I had strep throat, but both the test and the culture came back negative. So “some virus” is what ailed me. The healthcare provider that saw me said that is was likely related to my diabetes. She said that I am more susceptible to infections now—which is great news. I can add it to the list of fun things that are going wrong with my body. Lucky me!

Anyway, I am hoping that I can get back on some sort of ADHD meds soon, and that I will start seeing improvement in my attention in the near future. I also hope that I have no more mystery ailments that knock me out of commission for more than a week. Until then, I will try my best to crank out some posts and get myself some general productivity going while I (thankfully) seem to be in a period of “normal” mood with my bipolar disorder. So far, me being off of lithium seems to be just fine. Let’s hope that it stays that way for some time. Fingers crossed, y’all.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

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