So I took 5 mg yesterday, after it took me four hours to marshal my energy to get ready for a long anticipated lunch date that I probably should've cancelled, and then after coming home and just crashing into bed, unable to rouse myself even though the hubby had left and I was in charge of the toddler.
Okay, that was a long sentence. It's making me twitch, but I'm just going to apologize and move on. I am not editing that sucker.
Anyway, I break out the steroids if I'm too whacked to parent. Being unable to wake up fully counts as whacked, especially when I'm the only parent in the house.
I also took extra Nexium (which is not good because now I'm shorting myself and may have to go without meds later) and four Advil.
Oh, and I started the next pill pack.
Between the four, something had to help, right?
The abdominal pain began to ease after that--it wasn't just my stomach, but the entire gut. I never achieved a state approaching anything near having energy, but I could get out of bed.
Today the stomach is better, although it's trying to go into acid overdrive after breakfast. I'm hoping I can just mind-over-matter it into submission.
I'm beyond trigger foods at this point, it's now to where I can't eat anything safely. Even though I'm not hungry, I have this drive to put something in my stomach under the misguided notion it will help. Peppermint tea is soothing. Ice cream (Breyer's low carb) feels fantastic and it's a trick my parent with Barrett's has used a lot over the years.
Pepto bismal does jack. I hate Pepto. Every doctor tells me to take it. I don't think they quite understand the nuclear waste properties of my stomach acid. By the time Nexium fails, Pepto just makes me want to throw up, it's like using an eyedropper to put out a bonfire.
Some of this was adrenal, but I'm not sure what the car order was on the Train of Pain. I think GERD was the engine, then tack on the drop in cortisol from the pill pack ending, the tenuous grasp of my HPA axis on reality, cramps, and the hot, overly busy week preceding the whole mess. Something was just seriously off in my body.
For today, I'm debating 5mg. My gut is not twisted in knots, but the fatigue is more than I would like. As in, if I laid down, not sure I would get back up. We'll see.
Should I Get a Second Opinion?
2 days ago
That sounds pretty terrible - I'm glad your gut is better, but the fatigue can be so crushing. I had a medical person ask me, in the context of fatigue, if I found myself napping alot. "No, this isn't sleepiness. Sleepy doesn't feel as bad as this, sleepy is fatigue's healthy cousin. I don't nap - I am not a napper."
ReplyDeleteOh my, well, you know, they asked. If by "napping" they meant lay on the couch/bed in a stupor, well then yes, I suppose I do "nap".
I've started adding zantac back in with the PPI (I take prilosec, haven't graduated to nexium) to good effect. And I agree with your assessment of pepto. It's never been helpful for me. Some luck with the liquid antacids like maalox and carafate but only as relatively short acting "make it stop right now" solution.