Remember that old ad encouraging kids to stay off drugs by suggesting that if they did illegal drugs their brain would turn into a fried egg? And we've all seen today's commercials for prescription medications which provide a list of side effects, complications and reasons to not take said drugs that is longer than the benefits of actually taking them, leaving one wonder why anyone would want to swallow those pills. Ah, but sometimes one must take those pills which incidentally come with a short book of side effects, interactions, and allergic reactions. (Does anyone actually read all this fine print?). My lovely drug cocktail has all kinds of potential problems and side effects, some of which I just live with on a daily basis. More worrisome than tremours, memory loss, an inability to articulate myself and a general spaced out feeling however is the damage all these drugs are doing to my internal organs over the long run. And I recently found out just how serious this can be. So...this is my body and this is my body Epival (an anticonvulsant that also acts as a mood stabilizer).
Pre-Epival (or any other drug for that matter) my body was good. Good liver, good kidneys, good pancreas, decent enough lungs and heart for a smoker...as far as I know everything was working fine and in good shape. My body on Epival is another story. Recently I had my fourth episode in a year of high fever, chills, delirium, complete joint and muscle aches and pains, stiffness, headache, stomach pain, the inability to move (literally) first thing in the morning, ringing in the ears, weakness, loss of appetite, and swollen glands wherever there was a gland to be had. If its part of the body, there was something wrong with it. Literally. This was the worst episode, leaving me knocked out and completely out of it for almost 3 weeks. I was unrousable, delirious and so sick I warranted two trips to the hospital (one in an ambulance - big excitement!), work ups by multiple doctors and an urgent referral to internal medicine - the place they apparently send you there when no one else can figure out what is wrong. Words like "connective tissue disorder" and "lupus" were being tossed out at me. All I could think was "Just what I need, another chronic condition. F off - go pick on someone else!" Thankfully, at the end of the day it was determined that the Epival I take was shooting my Lipase level through the roof to 200 when it's supposed to be 65. Hence, I was immediately taken off said drug. The verdict: pancreatitis. It will eventually heal on its own, but I am left wondering how my body will withstand the cornucopia of drugs I still take over my lifetime. It only took Epival a year to start wreaking havoc. I'm only 37. And I am that person who will, if there is something to get, get it. The moral of the story...if you don't have to be taking any medication, don't take it.
So, that also explains my absence here. I'm recovering nicely now and hope to be writing regularly, as long as one of my other drugs doesn't create some other medical emergency!
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2 comments:
Good advice!!! never knew that delirium could be so scary!!!! Definitely hope you are never that sick again!!!! Your mama was worried +++++++!!!!!!!!
interesting ange. Some of us do read the side effects, but i think many disregard them as a fact the pharmacutical company just covering all their bases to perhaps avoid a law suit. We do need to pay attention to the drugs we take, as well as the Drs. who prescribe them to us. This brings up another question for me, with the potential of side effects, whats the alternative?
Glad they found out was was wrong.
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