Further News... A Little Blue Pill

Frustrations!

I went with the recommendation to take half a dose of the new medication, hoping it would both treat the RLS and not induce hours of nausea. "Hours" became defined as most of the day. Even after the nausea tapered off my stomach communicated its total antipathy to food of any sort. But I was willing to try the ammended dose.

You know that saying about fool me twice?

By 1 AM I was awake again. So much for drowsiness, eh?  And my legs were twitchy again. Adding to the whole mess was the nausea, keeping  me awake despite repeated attempts to lie down and snooze. Allergy tickle in the throat led to an occasional cough which invariably ended in gagging. Any time I moved from room to room it was accompanied by the presence of a plastic tub for just-in-case.

You can bet I called the doctor the next morning minutes after his phone message system was being answered. After explaining to the voicemail what was happening and my refusal to take another one of those pills, I waited in hopes of a new medication with better (fewer) side effects. I wound up with a new one called in, this time only in a quantity of 15 pills. Why waste more if these weren't the ones for me either?

Today was also Steve's visit to his doctor. Included in the list he took along with him were requests for new prescriptions so he'd have what he needed, and access to them in Minnesota. So we both headed out shortly after lunchtime - not after actual lunch, mind you - to the pharmacy.

This time instead of a little orange pill it was a little blue pill. No, not that little blue pill, although Steve and I joked about possible similar effects. This time it's not labeled for RLS, but acknowledges that it may be prescribed "for other conditions" than what's on the label. I have to hope my doc knows it has a chance of working. The listed side effects this time do not include nausea either. But they also do not include hallucinations like the orange pills did, plus a few other scary things. I might get a headache, oooh scary! It's still a medication to take very seriously. I'm supposed to watch out for a number of possibly fatal side effects, including possible suicide.

I'm hoping this process doesn't make me quite that frustrated!

Like the last one, I'm to take it in the evening, presumably due to drowsiness (we can hope for drowsiness anyway) but this time they say "at bedtime" rather than 1-3 hours ahead. It also specifies on a full stomach and with a full glass of water. So I'm sitting around blogging and waiting to begin to feel drowsy. The tummy is full, and it was chicken so it'll stick around for a while. The water glass is full and also waiting.

In another 24 hours I should know how this one goes. I'll keep you posted.