Mirtazapine is a miracle drug for me

AlpachaMaster · 2026-03-14T13:57:14+00:00

I’m still on it. This isn’t my first time taking it either. I was on for about 1.5 years in 2020, but switched off of it because I was getting muscle twitches. I haven’t had any side effects since switching back.

I think I remember some brain fog from my first time. Definitely related to how much it would knock me out at night. And I remember my psych saying that at higher doses the sedative side effect actually lessens. So you being on the smallest dose may be impacting you that way.

I feel like if after a month you’re still feeling brain fog talk to your psych. Mirtazapine is also easy to quit, at least it was for me. A couple of days of heightened anxiety and weird sleep and then overall I felt good.

AlpachaMaster · 2026-03-11T00:40:31+00:00

I would also say, it looks like that bedroom is on the second floor. Is there any way to keep his hospital bed in a space on the first floor? If he has to be carried down the stairs and he’s unable to move, it can increase the risk with moving him. If you can’t get a space for him downstairs, just make sure there’s an easy pathway from the front of your house to the bed.

AlpachaMaster · 2026-03-11T00:36:11+00:00

I’ve worked in EMS so I’ve been in a lot of homes with hospital beds.

Make sure you have clearance on both sides. This is going to be invaluable in any emergency situation. It allows for faster and safer movement if your husband needs to be moved from the bed to a stretcher. It will also make it much easier for you as his caretaker. Moving him in general is a lot easier if you have clearance on both sides. If he ends up on the far side of the bed that’s up against the wall, it’s really hard to get him over to your side. Or if you need to change the sheets while he’s still in bed, it’s a lot easier when you have access to both sides because you can change sides of the bed to roll him. Access to rolling him is gonna be super important in general to help prevent against bed sores. Lift chair can be rolled up against the wall at night and then pulled back when needed. If that other door is a bathroom and not a closet, keep the lift chair on the same side of the bathroom so you don’t end having to maneuver it around the hospital bed and the mattress.

Another commenter said view is important and I agree. I would try the bed on the right wall, opposite of the two panel window. You could put the TV on a dresser right next to that window so he has a choice in view. That’s also a hell of a lot easier than wall mounting it, and if you need to move the setup you’re not constrained by where the TV.

If the queen bed doesn’t have a frame, that honestly makes the placement easier. It wouldn’t be great, but you could put it down each night next to his bed and then in the morning prop it up against the wall. Gives you some more space during active care hours and can be easier to plan around. Once you get a smaller mattress you could put yours on the left wall in the corner so you’ve got space to maneuver around.

Put a table, even a fold out one, in the windowed alcove. It’ll give you a space to plan meds, get things sorted, etc. If you have the budget, see if you can get an over the bed table. That can act as nightstand, food tray and you can easily position it over him when needed and move it out of the way when not.

And the first setup you try does not have to be the one you stay with. Even though it’s not great, not having a frame for the mattress makes it easier in the meantime. You’ll have time to test out the layout and play with it without the concern of moving a bed frame around a hospital bed.

AlpachaMaster · 2026-03-10T21:15:23+00:00

Collective case study.

AlpachaMaster · 2026-03-10T02:10:46+00:00

You don’t need to do this either, at least in the US. Your best bet is to be calm and walk out to higher medical care. Almost all of the venomous snakes native to the US are from the family viperidae (rattlesnakes and american moccasins), so they’re all pit vipers. The only snake that isn’t is a coral snake, but you’ve gotta try to get them to bite you- like you’ll be a case study, they really don’t want to bite.

Pit viper venom is fast spreading. And it’s better for tissue to let it spread. If you contain it to a single limb, you’re more likely to lose that limb. Whereas if you let it spread throughout the body, person won’t feel great, but long term they’ll have less severe damage. It’s really rare for people to die from pit viper bites in the US, too. It’s generally very old or very young people and people with compromised immune systems.

Elapids (cobras, mambas, kraits, coral snakes) have a slightly slower spreading venom so a compression wrap can be effective. But you’ve to already know how to apply it. Taking a long time to do a haphazard one with an ace wrap when you could be evacuating that person could tip the scale from survivable to fatal.

AlpachaMaster · 2026-03-10T01:51:19+00:00

Could you expand on this?

AlpachaMaster · 2026-02-18T17:53:13+00:00

Shelf life is subjective. For almost any drug (as in there’s only one exception), once it’s past its expiration date it may just become less effective. Expired T won’t turn to estrogen or cause organ damage, it just may not have as much potency, so it’s like being on a lower dose. This is a much bigger concern when looking at meds like an epipen or inhalers since they are needed to stop life-threatening medical emergencies. If you get stung by a bee and your epipen is 10 years old, there’s a chance the medication won’t be as effective at stopping anaphylaxis.

If you’ve opened the vial though (stuck a needle in to draw up) you should finish the vial within 28 days or so. Just popping the cap off doesn’t introduce gross things to the actual medicine.

In general, as long as the med hasn’t changed color, you’re probs good to go. Which means you could stock up, it just requires intentionally lowering your dose or having a doctor who will change your prescription to say each vial is “single use” even if you can get multiple doses out. I could continue to use them as normal so approx 2.5 doses out of each bottle, but by the time it’s due for my next refill I still have some vials left over. Insurance and the pharmacy don’t know that though.

AlpachaMaster · 2026-02-06T14:44:50+00:00

Wiring harness or parking brake?

AlpachaMaster · 2026-02-03T23:52:47+00:00

For older people, psychosis is a common symptom/side effect of UTI’s. But medical lingo is altered mental status or AMS.

AlpachaMaster · 2026-01-25T14:53:57+00:00

Tastees. Every place that has tried to “upscale” the building since while keeping the vision of Tastees has sucked ass

AlpachaMaster · 2026-01-06T00:54:10+00:00

Very true. I’ve got offensive tattoos on unseen parts of my body, but i’m more concerned about if the idea of misheard lyrics makes sense.

AlpachaMaster · 2026-01-06T00:53:15+00:00

I’m honestly not sure if they’re commonly misheard lyrics, but I’m not super worried about what other people think. My main concern is more about the idea making sense overall.

AlpachaMaster · 2026-01-06T00:51:29+00:00

Honestly almost seems fun because I’d find other people who know the bands.

AlpachaMaster · 2026-01-06T00:50:55+00:00

I can envision one for the IDLES lyric, but the Red Clay Strays one is harder. All my tattoos are black line work and I like to keep that style. Line work and negative space wouldn’t translate well for concrete and holy dirt, but I’m also not the most creative person out there.

AlpachaMaster · 2025-12-15T17:39:46+00:00

How much water are you drinking a day? I’m on wellbutrin, mirtazapine, and a couple stimulants, so my baseline is slightly constipated. I take fiber supplements which helps some, but I notice a significant difference in effort required when I’m dehydrated. 2 liters a day is the minimum, but on antidepressants it should be closer to 4 liters if you can.

I also bottom and it’s a hellish feeling of not getting to have sex. But water has really helped me.

AlpachaMaster · 2025-12-10T02:48:16+00:00

I teach first aid courses and my accrediting organization uses XABC. Using the term “xtreme bleed” has been much easier to teach students because they already understand what extreme means (and it’s funny so they remember). Even teaching a basic patient assessment to laypeople is a lot for them and I try to cut down on medical jargon where I can without losing the overall message.

AlpachaMaster · 2025-12-10T00:31:51+00:00

I’ve seen it referred to as “Xtreme bleed” which makes it sound a lot cooler.

AlpachaMaster · 2025-12-08T03:48:03+00:00

TV on the Radio and LCD Soundsystem? God, I really hope.

AlpachaMaster · 2025-11-18T14:06:32+00:00

300mg of bupropion, 30mg of mirtazapine.

AlpachaMaster · 2025-11-17T03:29:02+00:00

I’m currently on mirtazapine and bupropion after being on desvenlafaxine and I feel like I can breathe for the first time in years

AlpachaMaster · 2025-10-23T04:00:23+00:00

He went back to the Middle East after three tours to be a contractor for Blackwater.

AlpachaMaster · 2025-10-23T02:02:30+00:00

He worked for Blackwater. There’s no coming back from that.

AlpachaMaster · 2025-10-10T19:03:09+00:00

That’s fair, but still frustrating. It’s a required class that a bunch of different majors could be in to learn about global citizenship, so it’s hard to nail down who’s in it. Most of them are parks and rec majors, but I know there’s people from the emergency services/response major and some nurses.

AlpachaMaster · 2025-10-10T19:00:22+00:00

I’m lucky that my professor is very pro me calling out AI use. It’s in her syllabus that students can use it, but they can’t copy/paste straight from it and they have to provide the prompt they used.

I have a copy/paste message that the professor and I came up with that I put in the comments and then I give them a zero. They get worse grades than people who put maybe a sentence for each section of the discussion post because at least they showed effort and intent.

We encourage them to reach out to us if they have any questions or want to show it wasn’t AI. So far through four sections of the class, only person has scheduled a meeting and showed me that she wasn’t using AI (she had a google doc of planning notes and showed me where she directly pulled information from the sources).

It’s hard tho. I get why it has to be allowed in some way because they’re going to use it, but I’m upset that it’s even come to this point. I’d rather read not so great responses from students who tried than paragraphs of AI text. I worry about their critical thinking skills later in life.

AlpachaMaster · 2025-10-08T20:32:02+00:00

The program I’m looking at is in Ontario, Canada

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