Whatever you don’t know about me, you probably do know that my husband has bipolar disorder and is stable enough that he has taken a job as an over-the-road truck driver. Maybe you’ve been concerned that when I quit my day job I was being overly optimistic about his potential. I do have the tendency to think positively. Well, he hit a rough spot and is handling it like a pro.

Troy is stressed out because he just spent two weeks training a guy who is new to his company, but has worked briefly for many other trucking companies where he developed some bad habits and an attitude that he knows what he’s doing and nobody is going to tell him anything new. It was a rough couple weeks, but he taught him everything he could and the guy is gone. I think it’s like the exhaustion you feel when you realize you’ve survived a disaster. The adrenalin drops and leaves you feeling crushed.

He called his psychiatrist, but she is out of the office on a medical leave of her own, so he spoke with another doctor and the nurse.

The substitute doctor has never seen my husband and is not willing to risk prescribing something new that might cause drowsiness to someone who is away from home driving a semi. I don’t blame him really, but telling a person with bipolar who is cycling and nervous to take a few deep breaths and try to relax is more optimistic than even me. If it were that easy he wouldn’t be taking medication that requires regular monitoring to avoid toxicity, he’d be taking deep breaths. Nice try.

So I suggested that maybe adding back the Seroquel that he was on before he started driving and only taking it at night (as he was doing) when he could get a full eight hours or more of sleep. He called back and was told that this was a good plan, to go ahead and try it. His dispatcher was working on getting him home this week because it’s been two weeks since I’ve seen him and he was only here one night the last time he was home–so he scheduled him to pick up a load in town on Friday to be delivered 15 hours away on Monday. He arrived home at 6:30 this evening, took a Seroquel, and fell asleep in his chair. All is quiet.

My week-end starts now and ends Sunday morning. I don’t expect to get much done on my writing or my website until Sunday evening because I try to give him my attention when he’s home and awake.

So far it it looks like everything will be fine. Crisis averted. We know that Troy is not stable enough to stop paying attention, but as long as we pay attention, keep the doctor in the loop, and follow the instructions–life as we know it goes on.

How are things in your life?