bye Bye Effexor!

I am three days off the Effexor, antidepressant I was on for 15 years. It took 2 months of reductions to get off it. I tried cold turkey and got very sick, spending a whole day sick on the sofa.
I am still adjusting, and anxious to see how I do without it, but it is too soon to know. I tear easily, empathetic tears, no depression. I think the drug contributed to constipation and I have not woken and stayed awake in the middle of the night for two weeks.

All winter I had my nights and days mixed up like a baby. doing well now but have worked hard to get adjusted. Waking between 7 and 8 and going to bed by one am.

The drug went from $90 to $170 in 8 years and I pay cash for it.

I am hoping that it will make a difference in the fibromyalgia. I am always making some kind of adjustments to lifestyle to feel better.

I have taken D-Ribose for several years on and off. It helped but I could not find dossage recommendations till a few days ago. I found a recommendation of 5 g three times a day, so I have been doing that for a couple days now. Once establiushed in the system it is to be cut back. I am very proactive to stay well.

I wish I had another month of winter!

I baked some nice banana bread this afternoon. The challenge for me is to cut the sugar, some of the calories, make it healthy and still taste good. There was lots of banana, 3 cups so I doubled the recipe in my Cooks cookbook. 1 1/2 cups of sugar was cut to 1 cup, 4 cups of white flour was half whole wheat flour. 1 1/2 cups of butter was cut to 1 cup butter and 1/2 cup fat free yogert. I had four duck eggs and used them instead of store bought chicken eggs.

Supper was stuffed peppers using brown rice cooked in my own canned spaghetti sauce, stuffed into halved green peppers and baked in the oven for an hour. Yum. We eat good.

I wish I had another month of winter. Now, you don't hear that every day! Lot's of projects I didn't work on that I would have loved to. It's time to garden and the indoor projects are put away till next winter.

There are day neutral strawberry plants to put in the ground. Onion sets are purchased and the soil is waiting for them to be planted. Peas can go in the ground any time now as well as lettuce, chard, carrots and beets. The coldframe is empty and ready to plant cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts and tomatoes.
Countless outdoor projects to do, just have to figure out what order to do them.
There are several clematis to move to the trellis we moved last fall at the City Building. There is a beautiful hydrangia not getting enough sun in it's current location that I want to move here at the house.

Life is good.

Six duck hens are laying eggs all over the property. I do not want any clutches hatching out so I am going to have to keep an eye out and see where the nests are and raid them.

Goodbye Effexor

Finding a drug that gave me my life back from the Bipolar disorder when I was forty years old was a Godsend. Having taken it for 15 years I had reservations about continuing. What is it doing to my body? Do I still need it? It costs $170 a month and I know I will reach a point when I can't afford to pay the price monitarilly.

I tried stopping the drug cold turkey and got very sick. Not one of those drugs that you can do that! So I gradually reduced dosage with the doctor's help from 150mg a day to nothing.
What is going to happen now? What kind of changes will my body go through? Do I need to detoxify my liver?
Enough of that for now.

Yesterday I got some lessons on how to post pictures with captions and got very stressed. I did succeed but have much to learn.

Sring 2010

Welcome and here we go.

There never seems to be a dull moment around here, even when I can't sleep at night. If it isn't a cat fussing there is a racket on the porch because a possum has lifted the lid on the catfood can adn it is banging when it hits the deck.
I have enjoyed reading blogs and tutorials of others and hope to post some projects that I share with friends and think others would like.