I Am the Side Effect Queen
Have I ever told you how I’ll get what I believe is a side effect to a medication and the doctor/whoever will tell me that it is impossible to have that as a side effect of such and such medication, but whenever I stop the medication, the side effect goes away?
Like for instance, I was taking a medication that is theoretically supposed to be a diuretic. Well, whenever I take medications that are theoretically supposed to be diuretics, I retain water. For those of you not in the know, diuretics are theoretically supposed to rid the body of excess water. But for me? Works the opposite. Go figure.
So, I was on one medication when I got out of the hospital and one of the major side effects that tends to effect a lot of people I guess, is coughing. So, that was not an okay thing. Then she wanted to switch me to another medication that took two weeks to get approved by the insurance. Hurray. So I finally started that this week and not long after I started it, I started having back pain for no reason. It’s not like I tweaked my back or slept wrong or did anything weird. Just random back pain when I was standing up. Well, the pharmacy info sheet lists back pain as a side effect and everywhere I checked with Google also lists that as a side effect, but the doctor’s office said, guess what? “You shouldn’t be having that side effect with this medication.” Well, I am. Anyway, the nurse practitioner and I decided I would stop taking the medication for the weekend and see if the back pain goes away, and if it does well there’s our answer. I didn’t take it this morning, and the back pain is better. Now instead of only being able to stand up for 5 minutes before I have to sit down because it hurts, I can stand up for a much longer period of time. So if by Monday I find that the back pain is gone, I’ll be right. As usual. Go figure.
In the meantime, I’m supposed to monitor my blood pressure, which is generally fine (for a normal person – but remember, I’m not a “normal” person). So, I went to Walgreen’s and got a $20 blood pressure monitoring kid and took my blood pressure. Guess what? Blood pressure is the same as it usually was before I went on the medication – which is generally fine for a “normal” person. And then on Monday maybe we’ll be able to figure out another medication to try. But this time? I’m gonna want samples before I pay for another medication that I end up having to flush down the toilet. :P
