I hate doing this to Doc G. He’s a good doctor and really wants to get me well. But pretty much everything he prescribes for me makes me iller than the original condition.
So I started the Diltiazem yesterday. By evening, I was getting signs of vaso-dilation/hypertension – headache, blurred vision, wrist-swelling (I can always tell when my blood pressure is up, because I have to loosen my wristwatch strap).
I slept pretty solidly, disturbed only by an upsetting dream in which two of my friends died one ofter the other. When I woke up, I had the phrase “Smell of burning rats” running through my head; it was somehow associated with the upsetting dream, but that was all I knew about it.
I also had a migraine that was gearing up into Flying-Scotsman-going-all-throttles-open-down-the-Shap-incline mode. So I had a fairly miserable day of things. I’ve just managed to have my first cup of tea of the day – before, everything that hit my stomach, including water, promptly came right back up; I’ll probably try a little cereal in a while.
I rang up Doc G and agreed to give Solatol another try; 40mg dose this time instead of 80mg. I’ll have many happy nights pacing around the place wishing I could sleep; many happy afternoons flat out on the sofa idly gazing at nothing. But at least I won’t have a migraine.
Bugger all this illness; I’ve had to email Roy Gillett and turn down the AAJ editorship job. It’s a great opportunity, more money, I’d love to do it. But I can’t be certain that my health will let me do a good job.
Smell of burning rats…..