I'm in the process of switching the med that has given me the most relief from my fibro. Why? Mostly because I'm pretty sure my doctor is an idiot. But to get to what I think is going to work, first we have to try her way.
Understand, normally, I do think doctors do have a skill and knowledge base that comes from studying the stuff for a long time and that they may possess information we have considered or have access to. I'm not saying that we need to follow the advice blindly, just that we need not write it off immediately for not being the answer we think is right.
But, when I went to her reporting an increase of fibro symptoms, daily headaches, and a whole host of 'clearly this needs dealing with' things her first response was to increase my SSRI (Lexapro, escitaopram, celexa pick you name, this thing has so many). Ok, this wasn't the answer I was hoping for but lets try it. If a little works, more should work better, I get this logic.
Now granted, I have information, that while in my file, she likely hadn't considered. When I first went on the SSRI (not for fibro at the time), I went through 3 nights in hospital, many many tests to come up with what exactly was causing my depression/insomnia/anxiety triad and what could be done for it. Welcome to the world of Canadian mental health research. It was actually one of the best things I could have done for myself. The end result was that they knew before I started the meds what med was best for me and that I would likely only need a low dose - but for the rest of my life. I was missing some brain waves, getting 7 mins sleep a night and basically that messed up my brain chemistry.
Ok, so despite this information (which I pointed out to dear dr.), lets up the dose. Tried that this summer, got vertigo as soon as I tried. OK, lets go slower on that increase. Nope, still can't tolerate it.
Which led us to where I am today. After completely tapering off that med (wait, what? Why? See previous me thinking my dr is an idiot. If you cant take more of the med, obviously its the wrong one, lets take it away and see what happens if we put you on an older, less effective SSRI, with way more side effects), I was getting the zaps (SSRI discontinuation syndrome) pretty badly.
Last night I said enough is enough. I couldn't move without being zapped, and was no longer safe to drive or function like a human being. I started the new med a few days early as obviously the first drug is out or basically out of my system (it had been 5 days since my last low partial dose) and my brain was not happy. Oh, and the mood swings had me dancing, crying then angry in the space of one song.
Honestly, I'm already not a fan on this new drug. Dry mouth, its affected the bowels. But i'll give it long enough to adjust before I go back in, demanding my medication and a new avenue of trying to control the fibro.
At least from this I have learnt exactly how much the first SSRI was doing for symptom management. The fibro went wild as the medication came out of my system. My muscles burn. Badly and with every step.
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