Don't ever get comfortable

[bronwynrh]

Oh no, don't dare get comfortable.

The tests from last week (the ultrasound and EGD) both came back negative. No word from the doctor on what that means - no word on why I've been feeling like absolute shit for months and months - but I have my suspicions. I suspect it's been the migraine medication, topamax. So I'm going off the topamax, now. I may see an improvement in how my stomach feels, but now I have nothing to ward off all those migraines. Of course, the topa wasn't preventing every migraine, anyway. I am scheduled to go in for one more uncomfortable and invasive test at the end of the month. If this was all due to the topa, why should I go through with it?? The doctor won't talk to me about the results until I get there, so I still have to prep for the test. . . this is fucking ridiculous. I want my body back.

I'm still waiting for reimbursements from my insurance company, who now owes me and my doctor far more than $1000.

And I just found out that the teaching job I thought I had lined up for next semester has been yanked. Clay wants me to teach for somebody else so I can get more exposure, more recommendations. That's fine and dandy, I just wish we'd discussed this earlier. Now I have to figure out what, and for whom.

Lecture course, virology?
Lab course, microbiology?

I'm working on the revisions to my manuscript and am making good progress. I need to get more done with my poster for the meeting. We leave in 10 days. The poster should be easy, I just need to finish it.

A week after my return from the meeting (I'll be gone for 9 days), I'm going out of town again for a few nights to run an experiment in a lab up at Purdue.


Like I said, don't ever get comfortable. I simply can't. :-/

Comments

[kendokamel.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[miasmaman.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

how about a lecture/lab course in sociobiology? you could come up here and teach me. ;)

[weatherblonde.livejournal.com]

Topomax promises nausea and constipation. Be careful to come off Topamax slowly if you're going to stop taking it.

[bramey.livejournal.com]

I'm coming off of it, now. I was stupid and forgot it this last weekend, so I missed 4 doses, but I am now just taking 25mg morning and night for the last week and half - sort of splitting the difference.

The nausea and constipation problems and all the stomach pain didn't begin until a few months after I'd started taking the medication, so I wasn't sure they were connected. Now I'm certain of it.

It's upsetting that my neurologist never said a word about these possible side effects. I had to read about them - and even then, I read it was most likely at doses higher than what I was taking. No physician confirmed the possibility (indeed, likelihood) until I saw the specialist two weeks ago. Something's wrong with that.

[weatherblonde.livejournal.com]

After I'd been taking lexapro several months, my hands started to itch, and I'd get a rash anywhere I had pressure (like on your wrists when you sling a bunch of those plastic sacks full of groceries and carry too much).

Even though "rash" is in the literature for Lexapro, the doc didn't believe it was connected. This was not trivial...it was nightly and it was maddening.

The four week medication vacation proved it WAS the lexapro. Fortunately all it takes to fix it is to take a daily antihystamine.

I can't trust my doctors to keep up with the literature. (you also can't trust everything you read, especially on the internet.) Now, I only trust me.

I agree if the symptom starts any time other than the split second you put the pill in your mouth, they think it's not connected. Isn't that stupid?

Best wishes; I hope you get help with your tummy and with your migraines.