The uncertain world of new medication

Whenever you get a new medication there’s always got to be some sense of trepidation that goes through you: how is your body going to be effected by it, will it help your illness, what are the side effects, how big is this sucker that I’m going to have to swallow, things like that. Thankfully, none of my medications are bigger than a baby aspirin ::wipes fictitious sweat from her fictitiously sweaty forehead:: but I’m not so certain about the other stuff yet. Granted, I’ve only been taking the new medication for barely 24 hours, but it still leaves a lot of room for suspicion and worry—and I’m not even sure that’s a good word to use, worry,—to be creeping around in my head.

I started my morning off with Reglan, a medication that is something along the lines of Prilosec, it’s to get the food moving through my body and not taking a prolonged pit stop in my belly. The only “problem(s)” with this medication is that it can make you sleepy, but it can also cause nausea and vomiting. I’ve proven that I can rival Linda Blair in that department and my accuracy has higher marks than Robin Hood; but it’s a little disconcerting taking a medication that is adding to a problem that I am having all on my own. All day I battled the BLAHs…Frankly, if I had just given in to the weaker side of myself, I could have, and probably still could, walk into the bathroom and empty my gut out of it’s contents without batting an eyelash. However, I am choosing to take the higher and less nasty tasting road and ignoring the nausea as much as possible by popping me some Phenergan. Phenergan in and of itself isn’t all that exciting of a medication…it is used for hyper-emesis (prolonged vomiting…I’m picking up on the lingo), but it can knock me out for a couple of hours, which is nice, because I think that is what is actually helping keep the nutrition in me.

My other new medication, Topomax, is used for migraines and, supposedly, vertigo. So far I’ve had a headache for the majority of the day and I’ve been really dizzy; but I know that there’s an adjustment period when you get new medications, so I’m trying to be positive. But, let me tell you: that Topomax makes everything taste disgusting! I have had to chew so much gum today to get rid of the taste in my mouth! On the bright side, I slept straight through the night last night for the first time in a while, which was nice and one of the side effects of the Topomax is weight loss and we all know that there needs to be A LOT less Christine, so hopefully this medicine will turn out to be a keeper and work on all fronts.

I’ve been trying to maintain the hospital schedule of medication consumption—7am, 2pm, 6pm, 11pm—especially when it comes to the night meds to see if that will help me sleep better at night. It worked last night; so I think I will take my meds at 11pm and then play a few games of Scrabble and then hit the hay.