Bone marrow match

[Twylight]

There is four children in my family:
Richard is 56 and has No Mental Health problems
Anne is 55 and has bipolar disorder
I am 49 and I have paranoid schizophrenia
Lorraine is 39 and has No Mental Health problems

When I had bone marrow leukemia, they tested my siblings and Anne who has bipolar was a bone marrow match
Anyway I had five courses of chemotherapy and it was successfull - I didn't need a bone marrow transplant from my sister Anne

I take olanzepine and it works well for me

My sister Anne tried olanzepine, but she got too high
SO although my sister and I have identical bone marrow - our brain chemistry is completely different

 

[ramboghettouk]

I've heard the argument that it's the same combination of genes that causes schitzoprenia and bipolar it's the enviroment that makes it one or the other

 

[Twylight]

Enviromental, that's interesting

I had dillusions and OCD as a young teenager and I eventually broke down at 27 after a string of catastrophic events, I was using cannabis and it might have been a factor

But Anne had a succesfull medical career, she'd never touched an illicit drug
It was when our Mum was diagnosed terminaly ill - when Anne developed bipolar

 

[KP1]

out of inerest how old was your sister when she first had symtoms?

 

[Twylight]

out of inerest how old was your sister when she first had symtoms?

38/39 ish..

 

[KP1]

Thats interesting because I have a sister with bi polar from her teens now in her 40's. I was ok until my mid 40s and now suffer from major depression recurrent. I think we are affected by our genes and that stressful life events are the triggers but can strike at different ages.I worry now about the future mental health of my children because their risk could be higher of severe mental illness.
KP

 

[Twylight]

as a bit of an update:

My sister who has Bi-polar tried 10mg of olanzepine and got too high

She had a bit of a rest and now she's trying a lower dose of 5mg - it's early days, but so far so good

Fingers crossed.

 

[Twylight]

It's been a couple of months since my sister went from Seroquel to Olanazapine

She is a lot better and descibes the the difference as ' Miraculous '

Her only complaint is interrupted sleep - but such is Olanzapine