Withdrawal Effects from Prescribed Meds

Why do doctors never tell us, that the medication they’re prescribing, can have awful withdrawal symptoms?  These symptoms are also not on the Patient Information Leaflet, which comes in the packaging with the medication.  The P.I.L. tells you about any side effects you might get when taking the medication, so why not the same for withdrawal?

I was prescribed Zamadol SR 100mg for Fibromyalgia and Endometriosis pain by my G.P.  I had to take one capsule twice a day for 28 days, which I did.  The day after I stopped taking them, I felt terrible with ‘flu like symptoms.  But much worse than that, was the feeling in my legs and arms, like there was something crawling on my skin.  This feeling made me want to keep moving my arms and legs all the time, to try and alleviate the sensation.  I suppose it was a bit like Restless Leg Syndrome.  As soon as I relaxed, it started.  It was bad enough during the day, but nighttime was much worse.  Have you tried to sleep, when all you feel like doing, is move your legs and arms to get rid of the feeling of something crawling about on you?  It’s not easy, let me tell you, and I was almost in tears with it, it was so bad.

So that next time I see my G.P., I’ll suggest to him that he advise his patients of any negatives, on taking the medication he would like to prescribe, so that his patients know what to expect, and can ask for something else, which doesn’t have as many awful side and/or withdrawal effects.

Tags: Crawling Skin, endometriosis, fibromyalgia, Restless Legs/Arms, Withdrawals, Zamadol

Fibromyalgia, Endometriosis and Depression – Invisible Illnesses

I’ve been very lax with my blog.  I’m not going to make any promises to post daily or weekly, but I’m going try and make at least one post each month. . .

 

 

I woke up this morning, at about 5am, with a sore back and sore left shoulder, so it looks like the memory foam mattress, that we got a couple of weeks ago, isn’t going to help with the fibromyalgia after all.  The pain got gradually worse, and then the endometriosis decided to join in.  I am so sick of being in pain every day, and I mean every day.

Tags: depression, endometriosis, fibromyalgia, invisible illnesses, pain

My Sleep Apnoea – part 3

So today I had to return to the Sleep Clinic, to find out the results from the CPAP machine.  This machine had a microchip in it, which recorded how many times I stop breathing during the night, for the past 7 nights.

The nurse connected the microchip from the CPAP machine to her computer, and it wasn’t good news I’m afraid.  I still have to use the dratted thing.  During the past week, I stopped breathing, on average, 14 times an hour.  That’s approximately every 4 minutes.

It looks like Darth, my hubby’s nickname for my CPAP mask, and I will continue to be bed buddy’s for at least another year.

Tags: Positive airway pressure, Sleep Apnea, Sleep disorder, snoring

My Sleep Apnoea – part 2

Well, that’s me back from the Sleep Clinic.  The nurse weighed me, and confirmed that I’ve lost around about a stone since I was last there, in September 2010.

She has given me another CPAP machine, which has a microchip in it.  It will record how many times I stop breathing during the night.  So, I have to use this machine for a week, and take it back next Friday, when the nurse will put the microchip in her computer, and we’ll find out the results.

Watch this space…

Tags: Health, Positive airway pressure, Sleep Apnea, Sleep disorder

My Sleep Apnoea – part 1

In February 2010 I was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea.  This was after months of hubby wakening me up to tell me that I was snoring, and then telling me that I stopped breathing too – eek!  We’d both seen documentaries on the T.V. about Sleep Apnea, and realised that that’s what I could have.  So off I trotted to my G.P., to be referred to the Sleep Clinic at our hospital.

Tags: Apnea, Apnoea, jaw, Positive airway pressure, Sleep, Sleep Apnea, Sleep disorder, snoring, weight

Sunset over Dundee

My hubby took these photographs of a sunset a couple of nights ago.  Our living room window faces north/north-west and we often get to see glorious sunsets.

Tags: Dundee, Pollution, Sky, Sunset

Much a’Doo’ About Nothing!

The Scottish word for Pigeon is Doo, as in Dove.

Hubby came in from the garden today and said to me “There’s a doo just lying in the garden.  You’ll need to see to it.”  So off I trot, to see said doo.  He was right.  It was just lying there, between the wall and the watering can.

I managed to pick it up easily.  It didn’t move at all.  So I checked it’s legs and wings and they seemed ok, not broken, and the doo didn’t flinch.  As ‘he’ had been lying in direct sunshine, I put him down under shrubs, against another wall, and I went in to get some sunflower seeds we keep for feeding the birds.  I scattered the seeds around our doo, and put a saucer of water in front of him, which he lapped up thirstily, and I soaked bits of bread in water for him.  I then went inside to Tweet a pigeon loving friend about what I should do about our doo!

Tags: doo, helping, pigeon

Final Memories of My Dad

I watched the Sir Terry Pratchett documentary last week, about Assisted Suicide.  It’s a very emotive subject, which brings very strong opinions to the fore, and which reminded me of my Dad, just before he died.

Dad had heart failure, and he died on 18^th June 2008, but, if he’d had his way, he would have passed on a week or so earlier.  He was admitted into hospital at the start of May. Yes, he was finding it difficult to breathe, but he’d had that problem for a few years, been admitted, given medication, and released.  However, this time was different.

Tags: Caring, Dad, Dying, Heart, Hospital

The Treadmill of my Mind

Depression and anxiety.  I have them both, and I wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy.  Well, maybe on this present Government, for an indeterminate time, just so they know what it’s like to be scared to leave the house, or answer the phone.  How you can’t concentrate, on anything, for a nano-second, and just want the world to go away.

Since I’ve been on medication, the levels of my depression and anxiety change from day-to-day, or even hour to hour.  This particular day had been a fairly good one, but it was starting again.  You might know the feeling. 

Tags: thoughts, wellness, WRAP

My First Blog Post – Help!

When I first registered with WordPress and saw my Account, I panicked.  It all looked so technical and, looking around the site, reading different parts of it, it all sounded like a foreign language.  What had I imagined?  Probably something based on MS Word or maybe MS Publisher, with templates.  Here I was faced with terminology I had never heard of before.  What to do?

Tags: Starting, Writing