Watchful Waiting

I hate starting new medications. I tend to be very sensitive to drugs, and sometimes it seems like I have every possible side effect on the books, even ones my doctors and pharmacists aren't accustomed to.

I'm exaggerating of course.

But when I start new meds, there is a period of watchful waiting as we wait to see if the medication is helpful or whether it's going to make me feel sicker because of side effects.

So, gee, I've had some twinges of nausea yesteday and today. Nothing bad enough to make me throw up, but enough that I dug out my old anti-nausea medication from my ulcers and took that today.

I also seem to have lost my appetite the past few days. That's not actually a bad side effect in my opinion since I'm well padded and could stand to lose some weight, even if just the 20 pounds I've gained since getting sick in June. (Three months of steroids -- including some massive doses -- just totally did me in.)

Of course, the loss of appetite and nausea could just as easily be related to the virus we're all dealing with in our home for the past week or so, and not even remotely related to the plaquenil I started on Wednesday.

I'm also finding myself even more fatigued than usual. But that could be from having Scott and Ellie home for the four-day holiday. I love my family, but this illness I've got seems to require a lot of solitary quiet time, and that's hard to get when everybody is home. And a four-day holiday weekend was going to be exhausting for me even if I hadn't started the new med. (I have taken naps every day this weekend, but that doesn't seem to help as much as I'd like.)

At any rate, no sign of any bad side effects that would force me off this medication so far. But also no sign of improvement yet either.