State of Mind

Schizoaffective update

Thank you all for your prayers. I've been out of hospital for quite some time now, but it is only today that I'm able to function to some extent. Thank you all for your prayers. They have been with me through my darkest fears.

My diagnosis has been confirmed as schizoaffective, and I've been put on lithium (for affective disorder), and haloperidol (for schizophrenia). Having been diagnosed with both the illnesses comes as a relief to the contrary, as the prognosis rates for this is better than the prognosis rate for the former. Two more medications are being used to stabilize me. Lithium initially gave me the worst form of side effects possible, though I do not know of any that haloperidol did. I've already got a lithium test done, and it was below normal so my meds have been upped. One of the scarier side effects of lithium is also testosterone imbalance, and thats got me a bit worried. Another lithium test scheduled this week, and more to follow on regular basis, as any lithium user already knows. I haven't had the time to do much research into these meds, which I plan to do, but lithium has one side effect of dehydration with salt loss, something that most of these meds have. So I've to make sure that I keep up the juices. More comes later...love life!