Starting The Journey

All my life I have disliked taking “chemical” meds for anything.  Not even aspirin for a headache.  About 4 years ago I was diagnosed with Bi-polar I.  It has been a journey of trying different meds to help get this under control.  15 days ago when I started this journey I was on the following medicines.  In the evening I would take Cymbalta 60mg, Lamictal 100mg, Seroquel XR 200mg and Doxepin 50mg.  In the mornings I would take Wellbutrin XR 150mg to clear the fog of the night’s meds.  Additionally, I had to take other meds because the psych meds caused so many issues.  I have Omeprazole (for reflux), Lipitor (for high cholesterol), Fenofibrate 145mg (for triglycerides), and Levothyroxine 50mcg (for thyroid issues). I did not have any of these latter issues before taking the psych meds.  With all these meds I had a high heart rate even when at rest.  I have always been an endurance athlete so even when I was pushing my heart rate would only be in the 90s (this was confirmed on a stress test a heart doc did while at the same time watching my heart with an ultrasound.  They were also testing my heart for prolapsing mitral valve which the test showed I did not have and in fact I have a large heart of an athlete).  After starting to take psych meds I once had a resting heartrate of 140 bpm.  I am going to try to keep up with as many numbers as I can on this journey so I will know for sure I'm not guessing at something.