IOP - Intensive outpatient therapy

IOP-intensive outpatient therapy

After my hospital stay, I was placed on a different medication to see what that would do.  Again it seemed to help at first, but not totally rid me of Alister and the bad things he would say.  I started a new program at CARE called IOP – intensive out patient.  It is a cognitive behavioral therapy based program with time each day for check-ins, therapy exercises, and other activities to help keep people that are having a hard time coping with their conditions.  It ran on Mon/Wed/Fri for 6 hours.I was out of work at this point, using up all my paid vacation and sick time.  My mum came down to stay with me for a little while and was a huge source of strength for me.  This was all pretty hard on her and my family, especially with them being so far away.  So having my mum there was very good for my recovery.  She also finally caved and bought a cell phone so we could communicate wherever and whenever (she now loves her phone, so you are welcome, mum). 

I not only did IOP, but I started going to a support group every week offered through CARE and it was nice because I had started to feel very alone in my experiences.  I benefited a lot from both IOP and the group because I met other people who had conditions like mine and we could share stories.  It was so nice to not feel alone anymore (which is what I hope this blog will do for some people).
  

I had been at IOP for a few months by this point and was doing ok, but I got some of the worst news ever – my insurance wasn’t going to cover my treatment.  Sharp insurance, which is what I had, does not cover UCSD medical group (which is what all my therapy was through).  I had to stop going to IOP and find a new therapist all rather quickly.  It was a huge deal, because I was still very fragile and changing therapists can be a tough thing.  Reluctantly, I started up at a different IOP offered by Sharp.  It was like going to grade two every day.  I could play Wii bowling, color and make collages, do musical therapy (bang on kids instruments) or do aromatherapy where they put drops of oil on your hands that smell so good.  They would give us a snack of cheese and juice each morning and a hot lunch after the program ended for the day around 12:30.  I really felt like I didn’t belong there but it was better than no therapy. The good news is my new one-on-one therapist was amazing and I liked her a lot. I had about a month of that before I had to start coming back to work.  I eased in to it, coming back for just the afternoons after the IOP program ended for the day.