Doctor, Doctor

[shanmonster]

I just got back from the doctor's office, not too long ago. At long last, the doctor finally agreed that yes, it probably is the propranalol which has been sapping me of both energy and intellect over the last few years. I am being phased off the stuff and put onto something different. I am very, very paranoid of this transition. It took me about six months or so to get used to the propranalol in the first place. Whenever I accidentally forget a pill, I'm fucked up for several days, both energetically and intellectually. And now I'm to wean myself off the pills, a half-pill every three or four days, all while taking this new, mystery medicine.

Propranalol is a beta blocker. The way it was explained to me, it slows my heart down a bit, making it difficult for my pulse to raise. This would explain perfectly why if I'm on a cardio machine and it asks me to get my pulse to 160, that I feel like I'm going to die of an exploded heart. Apparently, the medicine is more normally prescribed to older folks with heart conditions who would never do halfway as much exercise as I do. It explains why I feel like I'm going to pass out during strenuous activities. And being a martial artist and dancer, that means I am frequently on the verge of blacking out.

Bah!

I'm going to talk to my metal arts instructors tomorrow. I'm going to explain that I might be seriously fucked-up for quite some time until my body acclimatizes itself to both the new meds and the lack of old ones. I'm sure they'll be supportive. Two of my instructors also suffer from migraines, and have already sent me home early on days when it was obvious I was useless.

Yup. I'm worried. Very, very trepid. What if this new pill turns me into a vegetable like that last one did? Will I again lie in bed for several days without even having enough get-go to change my underwear? Gad. That was scary. I wish I could do without any meds at all, but then I think of the months I spent mostly blind and in a constant state of distracted confusion, and I think the meds are the lesser of the evils.

Nevertheless, the visit to the doctor wasn't wholly nerve-wracking. During my overdue yearly humiliation, while the doctor was still under the hood, I heard her say, "Where is that cervix? Your pelvic floor is very, very tight. It must be all the belly dance."

High-five! Who needs Kegels?

Comments

[nymphie.livejournal.com]

I have lost energy recrntly as well. Maybe my heart is having trouble getting up there. We used to wear heart rate monitors in rowing and mine would always be 3- 5 beats slower than everyone else. One of my fellow kung fu students belly dances too. I need to take a class, it looks so fun!

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I find belly dance and kung fu are actually very similar. Hip raises are done in exactly the same way as you would go about chambering for a roundhouse kick, for example. And many of the arm movements I use in dance have martial applications.

I've taught a few of the guys in my kwoon some dance movements. They catch on quickly, once they get over their reticence at dancing, rather than kicking ass.

Here's hoping the new meds don't make my classes any more difficult than they have been. I've been missing most of them, lately. By the time I get home from school, I'm absolutely exhausted, and my head aches badly. It's very frustrating.

[nymphie.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, and I hope you feel better!

[chrysippvs.livejournal.com]

What is the nature of your heart condition - usually beta-blockers indicate something serious like L-QTS or CHF?

I hope it improves certainly!

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I don't have a heart condition. I have migraine status aura, which basically means that I get visual hallucinations or outright blindness plus confusion/distraction. It sometimes lasts for a month or two at a time. Fortunately, I rarely get the pain or nausea.

The propranalol is typically used to treat heart conditions, but it also has a prophylactic effect for migraines. It seems to do the trick very well, too. It even has another positive side effect: it negates tremors. Throughout my life, I've always had shaky hands. Since I started taking propranalol, my hands are rock steady.

Unfortunately, the ennervating side effects are dreadful for my extremely active lifestyle.

I guess I'll get to look forward to my hand tremors coming back when I go off the meds. Drat.

[chrysippvs.livejournal.com]

It is insane, and more than a little scary, how they can cross treat things like that - although that makes sense.

I have a Lupus induced Usher's Syndrome which is no fun, but I rather dislike doctors and would rather let it get the better of me than deal with the cross-affects of the haphazard meds they prescribe.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I generally dislike doctors, as well. It is very difficult to find a good one, especially here. Hell, it's hard to find a doctor, period, in these parts. I find they rarely listen seriously to what I have to say. I've been trying to tell my doctor for the last few years that I thought the propranalol was the source of most of my problems, but instead she sent me to a few specialists who tested me regularly for things like brain tumours and multiple sclerosis.

So finally, she says that of course it must be the pills. Grr....

I'd prefer to go without any medication at all, but I just can't cope with the blindness and confusion. I can barely follow a simple sentence due to the constant distraction of what looks like fireworks going off throughout my plane of vision.

Lupus? That's scary stuff. I'd never heard of Usher's Syndrome, but I just looked it up and found a couple of cursory definitions. Is it a progressive ailment?

[chrysippvs.livejournal.com]

Lupus? That's scary stuff. I'd never heard of Usher's Syndrome, but I just looked it up and found a couple of cursory definitions. Is it a progressive ailment?

With the Lupus it is. More or less means that my body tends to fight against itself internally when I am exposed to certain elements (like UV radiation [sunlight], louds sounds, etc). Being in Mississippi it means that I have to wear long sleeves all the time and more or less live like a vampire in the summers. I couldn't go into a club or I would literally get ill - (my friends thought it was a riot when Tyler Durden said in Fight Club that he couldn't go into clubs because "the bass-lines fucked with his bio-rhythm." If you have ever read "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe you get an idea of my condition - it drove Beethoven mad and deaf.

I hope the meds in your case get worked out well, it sounds utterly precarious.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I think disease is nature's way of expressing its inner Dali. Symptoms of many maladies are downright surreal.

[tornpatchwork.livejournal.com]

whoa. i've been having the things with "fireworks" in my field of vision about once a month for the past couple months. it only happens in my left eye, and i have a headache afterwards. maybe i have what you have?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a classic migraine. I used to get those, and I found that if I took a Tylenol as soon as I noticed the spots or if I went to bed immediately, I could stave off the headache.

What I have is extremely uncommon. I get the spots/fireworks but not the headache. And the spots worsen until they take over about 75% of my vision and then they stay put, day and night, for a month or two.

[zaki.livejournal.com]

That's amazing, really- I can't even imagine what that would be like. Awful for you, though. What a nightmare! Nature's inner Dali...lol! It gets even weirder when ya see things from a molecular level.

Aren't there lots of other treatments for migrane-related symptoms? Or does a dose when the symptoms begin not cut it? My friend has severe pain from migranes and she has to give herself a shot of something. (She has a deathly fear of needles, but when that pain hits she's able to stick herself without a problem.) But whatever it is works very well, for her anyway. I've never heard of migrane auras lasting a month, either. Yikes! I guess you just ended up with those lucky genes...

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

There are plenty of medications used to treat migraines, but as far as I can tell, they're designed to fight the pain. I don't have the pain--just the confusion and blindness. I've never tried the shots, but my doctor doesn't think it would do anything. So instead, I'll soon be going on an anti-seizure medication normally used to treat epileptics. Hoorah.