Military Medical Corps
Insignia
Here we are in 2014, it is only the sixth and we are all ready going to the doctor’s, luckily (in its own way) it is for a standard cardiology check up, oh and its 1 hour and 45 minutes each way for me, all for maybe a 20 minute appointment, another 20 for labs and 30 to eat breakfast in the hospitals cafeteria, great food with low military prices. We usually get in and out with full breakfasts for $7.50 total. Well back to the reason for being here or back to the way we left 2013 and that was with mom (Enter Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure **, Flashback Sound Effects Here.) After being told she had six months when mom was diagnosed with double heart valve failure and had to have the surgery quickly is when they realized she really only had may three to four months. During the surgery mom was placed on the heart and lung bypass machine, which means the machine was breathing, pumping and filtering her blood, everything for her. What the medical field has found out is that when on a bypass machine for some reason it affects a particular chemical in the brain (in a large number of patients) and for some reason causes depression. About 3-4 months ago mom’s cardiologist prescribed her with a mild anti-depressant called Cymbalta which did nothing, that dose was then doubled and again, nothing. Now we are up to date so (Enter Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure **, Flash Forward Sound Effects Here.) Yesterday we saw her Cardiologist for a standard follow up appointment and the issue of mom’s depression was brought up, yes by me. I asked the question, regarding the bypass machine and depression, is it normal for those patients who were placed on a bypass machine to experience depression 1-1/2 years later? The doctor agreed that the length of time after mom’s surgery a concern and it does not fit with everything she had look up since our last appointment 3 months ago. They now believe, mom’s low grade depression is just that, low grade depression. They have already changed her script to a new anti-depressant which she will begin her in nine days. She had to tapper off the medicine she is on every three days, go three days without then start the new medicine. She needs to have this medicine completely out of her system before adding the new one, this is standard with a lot of pain, anxiety, depression and other lines of medicines.
On top of this issue the doctor also feels that mom’s current line of medicines, which I don’t think I have enough fingers and toes to count that high, that it is not allowing her edema (water retention) medicine to do it’s job so they have replaced that also with a super edema medicine which should help her get rid of the extra water weight (25-30+ lbs) which is also a side effect of her various heart issues. For the depression, mom was using the bypass machine issue as an excuse and now that we know it 85-90% know it’s not related the doctor told her that she needs to get up, get moving and then asked mom, how she was doing her church, any groups she involved in, etc.? Of course I was glad I was sitting in the room because if now mom would have played around this issue. She has stopped going again using the bypass machine as an excuse. Stopped meeting for coffee, breakfast/lunch, shopping with her sister and the list goes on. As her wonderful cardiologist explained it, if you don’t go one time to a outing, then the next outing that comes up it makes it that much easier to say no again and then the next time and so on to a point where you just plain stop going.
On the way home she told me that shes been in the house since our Christmas party here at our house, that was eleven days ago What? You talk with her on the phone and everything’s okay, she’s a little down, but not she’s eleven days long down. She can yarn a tale and get you to believe “over the phone” that all is right but when you see her in person you can tell by her speech, her cadence, her mannerisms and more that she’s maybe running at 55-60% the rest is depression. www.helpguide.org show, “Signs and Symptoms of Depression in Women include the following things to look for;
The symptoms of depression in women are the same as those for major depression. Common complaints include:
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Any one or more of these can cause anywhere from acute to severe depression and can affect all facets of ones life, home, work, school, children, family and more. They go on to say that the National Mental Health Association, state about one in every eight women will develop depression at some point during her lifetime.” As you can see depression is quite common and is not something to be afraid to admit having. In just my direct family I know of four people that are on low doses of an anti-depressant in fact, I had a run in with a drunk driver over 21 years ago and I only recently (2-3 years) developed depression. Some can be treated with speaking to a psychologist other with medication and still others need both. It can take weeks, months or even years to grab hold of it. It can also be brought on by stress, hormones, fear, accident, pain and much, much more. If you expect someone you know may have depression, please do some research first take a second look and if need ask if you can help. They may just need someone to listen to them.
** 1989 Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure was Directed by Stephen Herek.
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