OFF NAMENDA, AND ONLINE
I had an appointment with the p-doc last week. I told her that I was experiencing some changes in my cognitive function. I'm starting to make more mistakes when I'm typing, and I'm starting to lose facial recognition. Not with people I already know, but with people I'm meeting for the first time. You introduce yourself & tell me your name, and I'll remember your name and everything about you. But if I see you a few days later and you say hello, I'll look at you and think, "Who are you?" Then as soon as you tell me your name again I'll remember everything. I just don't remember your face.

I told the p-doc that I didn't know whether it was being caused by one of my drugs, something else, or just getting old. She didn't think it was aging (I'm 39). I said that if I had to pick a culprit among the meds I'm on, I would pick Namenda. This is because the long-term side effects of Namenda are unknown. Namenda is a dementia drug. Nobody's on it long-term because dementia patients don't live that long. And their cognitive functions are fucked up to begin with.

My current dosage is 15 mgs/day. So now I've dropped down to 5 mgs. I'm going to do that for a month & see if I notice any changes. I'm reluctant to drop it entirely because I've been on it for almost 6 years. But we'll see.

In other news, I signed up with Facebook over the weekend. (Don't go looking for me, I didn't sign up for it with the name on this here Blogger thing.) In the 48 hours that have passed:

*I've attempted to friend at least 10 people and gotten frustrated when they didn't respond in 15 minutes.

*I've chickened out of friending the 2 people who were my motivation to sign up for it in the first place. One is the Cute Guy's brother. The other is a singer I've never mentioned here before. I'm not romantically interested in him--he's married with a kid--but we always get along whenever we see each other.

*I looked up my ex-friend from the tax firm. Turns out he married his fuck buddy.

My life isn't even interesting enough for a blog. So why do I need a blog, a MySpace page, and a Facebook page?

Speaking of Cute Guy's brother, we've been emailing a lot over the past couple of weeks. I've tried to hold back over the weekend. Not that the emailing means anything. He's out-of-state at the moment, and who knows when/if he'll come back or if I'll ever see him again. But it's just so nice to have a nice guy in my corner.
- posted by Pat @ 9:07 PM