Wednesday, November 28, 2007

How Can You Tell If You're Sick, Or Just Having Side Effects?

I'm trying to decide if my new medication, Plaquenil, is causing me to feel flu-like symptoms, or if I'm actually sick with something. The latter is almost as likely as the former since Ellie is sick and she's always quite generous about sharing her germs.

But all my symptoms are also on the list of possible "mild" side effects, which are fairly common at least in the early days of taking the medication. So I keep going back and forth about whether I should go see my internist this week, or wait until next week as scheduled. As I keep procrastinating, I'll probably end up waiting until next week. :)

My nausea is getting stronger, but I'm still not throwing up. I'm feeling so weak and fatigued that simply moving Ellie's laundry from the washer to the dryer tonight made me feel like I needed to lie down. (Her laundry is more complicated than mine since she's more likely to have food stains -- or worse -- on her clothes so I examine each item closely and hold it up to the light to make sure the stains are out before putting them in the dryer. If the stains are still there, I hang them up to drip-dry so I can try again to get the stains out.)

And I've got that thing going where one minute you're freezing and the next minute you're drenched with sweat. (And no, I'm not in menapause yet.)

I remain hopeful that once I've been on the medication for a few more weeks, I'll see a big improvement in my condition. Assuming I can tolerate what I really think are side effects ...

*****

I'm loving Scott Adams' new book, Stick To Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain! I just love the way this man's brain works. I don't know if he's this fascinating in person -- most of the celebs I've met through the AP (granted, a relatively small sample) were not as interesting as they seemed at a distance -- but since I'm not likely to ever cross paths with him, I won't have my illusions shattered.

The book is a collection of his blog posts, which I only recently found although years ago and several email addresses ago, I used to get his Dilbert newsletter via email.

It's particularly nice to read when you're not feeling well and can't concentrate on long chapters since most of the blog posts are under two pages. He writes some about the Dilbert phenomenon, but mostly about the way he thinks. And most important of all, the book made me laugh out loud repeatedly.

He says he considers optimism to be a choice you can make in your life, and that if he wasn't optimistic despite everyone who told him to keep his day job because he'd never make it as a cartoonist, Dilbert wouldn't exist. He calls himself an optimistic cynic and says that every time he enters a contest or plays a game, he fully expects to win, even if the odds are a jillion to one against him.

He says the most of the business ventures he's tried have been failures, but he just kept on trying without letting it get him down and always believing the next one would succeed.

It's a cool concept, and I'm going to work on overcoming my Eeyore tendancies and try to be more optimistic.

3 comments:

Penelope said...

I'm reading your blog back to the beginning. This whole exhaustion/fatigue thing coupled with hot flashes and sweats is bizarre.
Today I was breaking out into sweats so many times I thought I must have a fever. I took my temperature and it was 97.2, which isn't even normal. I wish there were answers. I'm so tired of feeling sick.

Penelope said...

I'm reading your blog back to the beginning. This whole exhaustion/fatigue thing coupled with hot flashes and sweats is bizarre.
Today I was breaking out into sweats so many times I thought I must have a fever. I took my temperature and it was 97.2, which isn't even normal. I wish there were answers. I'm so tired of feeling sick.

Aviva said...

@Penelope: I hear you! Back then, I definitely had side effects from the Plaquenil -- I couldn't tolerate it when I tried a second round of it, either. But yeah, I still get those hot flashes and sudden sweats, even though I've been assured that it's not early menopause. We just have to believe that we'll eventually find answers ...