I am now off of Seroquel, and beginning to titrate off of Lexapro. Today I took 7.5mg, a 2.5mg reduction. One week of this, then I drop another 2.5mg. Rinse and repeat until I’m done.
Today feels a little weird, but it is most likely that it is a result of my jet lag. I just returned from 9 days in Europe. I slept in four different beds, and never really got great sleep. Plus I was working really hard.
I was there to work on a collaborative project. During the project we worked for 5 days straight, 10am to midnight. It was undeniably the hardest I have worked in two years. I was a little worried I was not ready for it. But I was rather pleased with how well I did. I made it through the first three days in solidly good shape. Day four I started to feel the effort. I had to take some naps, and started to get more sensitive to heat. Day five I was fading, but I held on. I never had a full dysesthesia attack, but I did get noticably more heat sensitive by the end.
Heat sensitivity is still common, but I am experiencing it as less and less of a debilitating problem. I am having much less dysesthesia. Much less. And when I do have it, it is much more mild. I haven’t had a full blown attack in a while. In fact it has been so long, I can’t remember the specific event. Probably one of the mornings I arrived at the studio sometime before I went to portland. Maybe four weeks ago? This is not counting the sensations when I’m on my bike: those are different. I’m sure I’ll still have them in some form, but it is noticeably better.
I’ve had a number of crisis moments recently: forgetting important papers, realizing my bicycle was stolen, witnessing a drunk German yell derogatory phrases that ended with “Hitler” at Turkish youth, and being pulled aside for extra security screening. While all of these were uncomfortable in very different ways, none of them sent me into the waves of dysesthesia that would have been inevitable even two or three months ago. I really think the progress is noticeable.
