My New Dilemma
So, I’ve been looking for the right medication or combination of medications to help me feel better and function during the day. I’ve tried a whole bunch and most of them don’t deal with all of my symptoms. I’ve finally stumbled on a combination that seems to be working pretty well. But there are a few side effects.
Tinnitus! I hear ringing in my ears all the time. It’s a high pitched whistle that just doesn’t stop. Sometimes it makes it hard to hear what people are saying but most of the time it’s not too bad. In fact, as big of a pain in the neck as this is… if this were the only side effect I would think twice about continuing with medication.
But then there is the biggie… Vomiting and nausea. You know what, I feel good enough that I would even put up with the nausea. But the vomiting… that’s a different story. The need to vomit comes on suddenly with no warning. There are several minutes of very loud and violent retching and then it’s gone. Because of the nausea my stomach is usually pretty empty. So only some fluids and stomach acid comes out. At least it’s not messy. But it scares Elizabeth. It happens mostly in the morning. (Although it has happened once or twice at work and if I think about it too much I can trigger a psychosomatic gag reflex and almost make it happen – but I don’t, at least not on purpose.) But back to Elizabeth, in the morning I’ll be getting her ready for school / day camp and all of a sudden it sounds like I’m going to puke up cat (forget about a measly hair ball.) And like I said, it’s pretty violent. This morning I pulled muscles in my knee, in my back, and a couple in my shoulders (not to mention my sides.) Now, I’m no expert, but I would think it’s pretty hard to pull a muscle in your knee from vomiting, but somehow I did it.
So here’s the dilemma… do I continue with the medicine that is making me feel pretty good but causes me to scare Elizabeth and pull muscles or do I stop taking the meds and go back to feeling crappy all the time. Believe it or not… it’s a hard choice.
Tinnitus! I hear ringing in my ears all the time. It’s a high pitched whistle that just doesn’t stop. Sometimes it makes it hard to hear what people are saying but most of the time it’s not too bad. In fact, as big of a pain in the neck as this is… if this were the only side effect I would think twice about continuing with medication.
But then there is the biggie… Vomiting and nausea. You know what, I feel good enough that I would even put up with the nausea. But the vomiting… that’s a different story. The need to vomit comes on suddenly with no warning. There are several minutes of very loud and violent retching and then it’s gone. Because of the nausea my stomach is usually pretty empty. So only some fluids and stomach acid comes out. At least it’s not messy. But it scares Elizabeth. It happens mostly in the morning. (Although it has happened once or twice at work and if I think about it too much I can trigger a psychosomatic gag reflex and almost make it happen – but I don’t, at least not on purpose.) But back to Elizabeth, in the morning I’ll be getting her ready for school / day camp and all of a sudden it sounds like I’m going to puke up cat (forget about a measly hair ball.) And like I said, it’s pretty violent. This morning I pulled muscles in my knee, in my back, and a couple in my shoulders (not to mention my sides.) Now, I’m no expert, but I would think it’s pretty hard to pull a muscle in your knee from vomiting, but somehow I did it.
So here’s the dilemma… do I continue with the medicine that is making me feel pretty good but causes me to scare Elizabeth and pull muscles or do I stop taking the meds and go back to feeling crappy all the time. Believe it or not… it’s a hard choice.
posted by Liz at 11:33 AM
1 Comments:
Is there a chance that the vomiting/nausea will subside after a period of time? It would seem that it might as your body gets accustomed to the meds. I'd ask the doc about it ... just a thought. But it does sound pretty horrible, I don't think I could tolerate it as well as you seem to be.
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