Friday, June 20, 2008

The guinea pig's guinea pig update

I guess after laying all that on my readers yesterday you all deserve some kind of an update so you know I didn't take the first dose of Zovirax and spontaneously combust or something.

It seems to be making me have "bowel urgency" if you get my drift, and nausea. At least I read the insert and it did claim that those are indeed side effects "that may go away during treatment" (<-- don't you love it when they give you that false hope??!) so at least I'm 90% sure it's the Zovirax and not my nerves giving me the runs and dry heaves. I called the doctor's office just to run it by them (no pun intended) to see if they were acceptable side effects. Nurse talked to doc and he said unfortunately YES, but he didn't want me to get off it for any reason unless I had a Serious Adverse Event (I type that while cringing in fear). I told the nurse that I was tough and could handle it but that I just wanted to touch base and see if the doc expected me to be in the bathroom all day trying to decide which end merits hanging over the bowl most.

It's really not as bad as all that, but I do have less of an appetite, I feel queasy often (it comes in waves) and I make 4 or 5 bathroom trips a day...usually an hour after ingesting the latest round. So, strike the fear of oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-die-tomorrow-after-I-swallow-the-first-pill off my worry list. It didn't do a thing but make me sick. I even mentioned to John that it hasn't affected the Herpes any either. His response? "You only took 3 doses and you have 5 a day for 5 days. Give the stuff a chance!"

Why does he have to always have the annoying tone of the level headed? Can't he see I'm in hypochondriacal overdrive? At least grab your cheeks in a mock look of horror when you tell me I can relax. Sheesh!

Oh, and because my sister told me yesterday that when she reads my blog she scans the posts to find where I have mentioned her, this next paragraph is dedicated to her:

My sister, blah blah blah...and so my sister said blah blah blog and then my sister blah dee blah blah blah my sister my sister my sister my sister my sister.

There, ya happy?? Just kidding, you know I love you. :-)

Back to the dramatic story at hand. Oops. Major short term memory loss. Forgot what I was blogging. Have to go back and read it...just a sec. Okay, I'm back. I confess I again lost my train of thought and had to read it twice, but you didn't know I was gone that long anyhow, so why did I tell you?

Suffice it to say that Fingolimod and Zovirax seem to be compatible in short term dosing without any major side effects. (Oh my God I hope I didn't jinx myself!) So if any of you other Fingolimoders suffer Herpes in one form or another, you can rest easy knowing that at least I could take the antiviral medication and live through it. (knocking wood frantically)

Oh, and I had the ultrasound yesterday, lest we forget my Lumpy Ovary Side Story. The office manager at the imaging center decided to make a judgment call and let me have it done not knowing for sure if they were going to get paid. Some people are still suckers for a sappy sob story. And with everyone having their own version of that kind of story lately I was quite surprised I found a nice person with a heart who works in billing at the imaging place. I'd name her but I forgot her name. Unlike my sister, she probably will never read this, and if she does she won't be looking for HER NAME! (Ahem!

) I found out today that my mom's got to go get the results of her bone density scan and she wanted to go with me to hear the lumpy ovary ultrasound results, so we are going to go together (she got the appt. after mine) like a couple of school girls in order to hear each other's bad news.

She and I are both worriers, so we like to travel in packs. As if 4 ears hearing not-so-good news dissipates the impact and lessens the blow. Who knows, maybe Doc wants to give us good news. My mom's already been told the bone scan looked better than before by her PCP, so her news can't be that bad. I think we both are over thinking this thing and both of us will just be fine. I think maybe the doc just wanted a reason to sit around and talk sailing since all of us used to live on sailboats. That's gotta be all it's about.

Good thing Mom asked for the appointment on the same day as me because once again I got my appointment day mixed up. I'm supposed to go next Wednesday, not Tuesday. At least I would have had notice and not been a day late.

I'll check back in if and Serious Adverse Event comes along between now and then. Otherwise I may take a break and lay down for a while. All this worrying can sure take a lot out of a girl. :-O

6 comments:

  1. Ahem, you're a self-admitted short-term memory loss sufferer, and a KNOWN twister of the story-how-it-really-went, so don't make me go to Mom! I don't read your posts to find my name (tho it's pitifully few and far between that I, the balancer of the wandering wobbley worriers, am mentioned in these blogs); no, I read it to find out what my sister is doing, and what's going on in her life because she doesn't TELL me. I hear it LAST in the secret whisperings at Mom's house, having to shoo little ears out of the room every 5 seconds, and since we BOTH have the STML (short term memory loss), have to rewind half the story each time to catch up. I finally read my name (well, maybe not my name even, HEY...you said I'd see my NAME in here, what gives???)and I sound horrible! I AM going to Mom!
    ILYWAMHES!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hee hee hee!

    LORRAINE! There, ya happy? O, I see you beat me to it with your creative screen name. ROFL

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hope all goes well - or better. Saying a prayer for you right now. God bless.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I do believe that this is a 'No Spontaneous Combustion' zone. Just saying, ya know.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just getting caught up on all my blog reading and I hope you are feeling better!

    {{{{{{{{Hugs}}}}}}}}

    ReplyDelete
  6. Worriers like to travel in packs?!?! OMG...now I've heard it all (and laughed heartily, too...thanks!)

    Linda D. in Seattle

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.