Ready… Set…. Go?

Ahhh… a new month and the promise of cooler weather to come. September is one of my favorite months and autumn is by far my favorite time of year. There is something so promising about the sight of red and orange leaves against a deep blue sky. I’m looking forward to autumn in Colorado. I know that even though it’s in the upper 80’s right now, it is not unheard of to get snow here by mid-October… even at the end of September! I’m also looking forward to seeing my parents. They’re going to come visit in late October or early November. It’s not that I saw them so often before, but they were a lot closer. There’s something different about not actually being able to see them if I wanted to. Does that make sense?

On his own Alan has considered and come to the conclusion that he’s ready to be a daddy, which is really exciting. He’s even been thinking about how to rearrange all the stuff we have in the second bedroom to turn it into a baby’s room. So exciting! We went to Home Depot today to look at shelves and figure out the prices. That way we have a place for all my kids’ books without using up any floor space. Then we can put a dresser underneath that and a crib on the wall with the window. A little one won’t require all that much closet space… at least, not as much as we have, so we really only to clear out about half of it. It’ll work, I swear.

I called the Tricare Behavioral Health line to help find a psychiatrist  and they got back to me really fast with a couple options. One is a nurse practitioner and the other is a practice with two doctors and a nurse practitioner. I’m leaning towards the nurse practitioner because her office is closer to our house, and because I want to try and get pregnant. Not all psychiatrists support the idea of patients with bipolar disorder going off their meds or even having kids, since it has a strong genetic component. I think a woman would be more understanding of my desire to have children and more supportive of my efforts. The woman at Tricare was actually really helpful and told me what was covered and that I had no co-pays. Because it’s medication management, not therapy, the coverage is really awesome. They cover the initial visit and two visits a month after that. Not that I need so many visits normally. I’ve been going every 3-6 months because my moods have been so stable for the last few years. But it’s awesome that I can go more often, because I’ll need closer monitoring once I go off the lamotrigine.

I am a little nervous about it. I’ve been on medication of some kind or another (or several at once) for the last 5 1/2 years! Going off it is a scary thought. I think I’ll be all right though. One of the things that’s always tended to trigger mood issues is stress and I’m not under a lot of stress these days since I’m not working. I’m planning on going to the Family Readiness Group’s meeting on Tuesday and I need to make an appointment to meet my new psychiatrist/ nurse. I’m also going to try and find a publisher so I can submit my Karma book. I’ve been thinking about new story lines in the same vein as well.

So, no more meds, lots more sex, nesting, and taking a chance… Oh, and I dyed my hair. ^_^

~Liz