Depression Update 800 Million and 1

Some of you may have already recieved this in email form...

My GP had put me in for an 'urgent care' referral for an assessment by a specialist. I finally had the appointment today (I wonder how long not 'urgent care' takes).

The upshot of the appointment is that there has been some, but not much, progress on the new meds, but that it is good that it is working, even if it's not doing the full job. So, he's changed some more stuff and ordered some more tests and we'll see what happens from there.

The major development of today's appointment though is that the specialist feels that I should be in the hospital. He said that I can do it through a day program, so that I still have evenings at home and I can still sleep at home, which is a bit of a relief. I'm still not entirely sure how it works or what it means, basically it's 10-3 every day at the hospital. Beyond that, I'm not really sure.

I'm also not sure when it will happen, as they have to put in a requisition and find a space, but he suspects I'll be able to get in somewhere next week or the week after.

I asked him if he thought I was ever going to get through this, he said that given my history, given how long I managed to stay functional between depressive episodes, and even long into this one, that he was quite confident that I would get through this at some point. He did say that I have to recognize that this is a really severe episode, and although we might magically hit on something, like my thyroid meds haven't been working or something, that will turn things around, he did seem to indicate that I need to realize that this will take time, perhaps far more time than it ever has in the past, just given the nature of the severity.

I guess the bottom line is, I'm still here, I'm still surviving, I'm still full of unknowns, but it was good to hear from someone who specializes in depression that he really does feel like I'll be able to get out of this one.