I gave some insight recently into problems I’d had which led to a diagnosis of Vestibular Migraine. I posted as Everywhere. However, Everywhere disappeared and is now nowhere to be seen in the members list. As a result of an HU glitch which took them a week to sort out, I had to rejoin as Everywhere2.
Everywhere’s posts are still on forum but you probably won’t be able to find them. For that reason, I’ll recap briefly on what happened to me and what’s happened since.
One afternoon a couple of months ago, I suddenly without any warning began to feel ‘weird’. Falling over, loss of balance and dizziness. I felt ‘spaced out’ and not ‘with it’. At first I thought it was Labyrinthitis so I tried to ignore it. After a day or so, my vision was affected and my speech was slurred. Then intense nausea set in. I had an untreated sinus infection at the time so thought perhaps these symptoms were associated with sinusitis.
I called my GP and was ‘triaged’ by a Nurse Practitioner who told me to go to the surgery straight away. I arrived to find that she’d booked a double appointment. She asked me a lot of questions, which I answered like Edna the Inebriate Woman (BBC Play for Today 1971 - never to be forgotten) while falling over, throwing up on the surgery floor and abjectly failing all the neuro tests which she was trying to carry out.
She sent me straight away to hospital as she suspected I’d had a stroke or was having one then. A CT scan eliminated the possibility of a stroke but there were concerns that there were clear neurological problems and that the fact that they’d begun suddenly were a red flag.
I was eventually diagnosed with Vestibular Migraine. Interestingly I’d only had a vague headache with these symptoms but that isn’t unusual with VM. The vestibular / neurological symptoms often occur in the prodrome of a migraine and can be up to two days before the migraine occurs. Sometimes they occur concurrently with the migraine. The migraine itself is usually (but not always) Basilar Migraine (migraine with brainstem aura). The condition is very frightening, particularly if it begins suddenly.
I saw a neurologist 6 weeks ago who examined me and asked me about my stress and anxiety levels. Very high. BP also very unusually very high indeed. He made the point that there were four or five triggers for this type of migraine but that stress and anxiety were the most significant triggers. He prescribed Amitryptaline starting at 10 mg to be titrated by 10 mg every two weeks until I reached 50 mg, the target dose. He said that this drug would stop migraine, help the neuropathic pain which I have and also help with anxiety. He warned that I would be very sleepy and that I should have the medication two hours before bedtime so that I wasn’t too groggy in the morning.
I looked forward to being enveloped in the comforting glow of grogginess as the drugs kicked in but it was not to be. After the first couple of doses, I stopped sleeping but was restless, agitated and hyperactive during the day. My anxiety increased as the dose increased and I felt desperate. I was frightened, irritable, aggressive and generally vile. I picked endless fights with OH about the way he loaded the dishwasher, what we were having for tea and why I ever married him in the first place. I couldn’t understand what was happening and felt as though I was standing outside myself watching some crazy woman who definitely wasn’t me.
By the time I’d been on 30 mg for a week, I was desperate. I phoned the GP surgery and my request to see a doctor was triaged by a receptionist who said that I’d feel better as my dose increased. After I’d ranted for a couple of minutes, she allocated my ‘call back’ to the ‘in house’ pharmacist. At the time, this really annoyed me as I didn’t see how he could help. I’m really glad that he did call me back though. He was very helpful and I realised then just how much more Pharmacists know about drugs than doctors do.
I explained how I felt and asked him if things would resolve as the dose increased. He told me that I had to stop Amitryptaline straight away as I was having a Paradoxical Reaction. He explained that such reactions are rare, affecting about 1% of the population. He looked at my medical history and prescribed Pregabalin. My heart sank. I know that it’s an anti epileptic and has its own list of problems. He told me that it was licensed for General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and would also help with neuropathic pain and migraine. He started me on 75 mg morning and night and wrote to the neurologist.
I had to stop the Amitryptaline one day and start the Pregabalin the next. I expressed some concerns about how my poor brain would cope with now being rewired from the other direction. He told me to try to be calm and just let the drugs work.
My speech was virtually unintelligible as I was speaking to the Pharmacist and had been like this since I began the Amitriptyline. It wasn’t the ‘slurred’ speech associated with the VM. My jaw, tongue and face were stiff and aching and my larynx wasn’t happy. I tried to explain that my speech was slow and robotic (a tad unnecessary as he’d been listening to it for over ten minutes) and he said that this was called Dystonic Muscle Failure. What??? After the call ended I researched this issue on the internet. Dystonia is caused by low dopamine and in more severe cases it’s a symptom of Parkinson’s disease. It’s also significant that the body increases cortisol production to compensate for low dopamine. This would explain my ‘preggy belly’ which is at odds with my slim limbs and face. That, in turn, would also explain why so many people have unexplained weight gain when they have certain ADs. It isn’t all about what you eat as doctors would have us believe.
I’ve now been on the Pregabalin for just a week. It’s likely that I’m still ‘washing out’ the Amitryptaline. I’m not yet feeling any benefits from the effect of the newly prescribed drug but I’m feeling better as I now understand what’s happened to me.
Yesterday I had another appointment with the neurologist and he explained to me that my brain was trying to ‘shut down’ to protect itself. Sensory overload, long term stress and unresolved anxiety have taken its toll. I’d had an MRI of my brain done after my first appointment with him and he’d got the results of that. Everything normal except some ischaemic changes which are nothing to worry about.
My husband is a kind and loving man and has supported me through many illnesses and rough times. He understands what’s been happening - but I still don’t. How on earth can a drug which was meant to help me cause such mayhem?
My mind drifts back to 2014, three years after a total thyroidectomy. Doctors were still fiddling and faffing about trying to sort out my thyroid levels and I was undermedicated for a long time. I hadn’t yet joined this forum and had no idea what was happening to me. I was depressed, anxious and exhausted. My GP, much against my better judgment, prescribed Prozac. What I now know was a paradoxical reaction began very quickly. They treated my symptoms by increasing the Prozac until I was totally at my wits end. One day in August 2018, I told my husband that I wanted a divorce. He was flabbergasted. I went into town, bought a sun hat from M&S and went to see a solicitor. As you do.
We separated in November 2018, sold our lovely house and bought properties 100 miles apart. We were both overwrought and confused. My husband just wanted his wife back - but I didn’t know where she was. He phoned me every day to see how I was and when Lockdown came, he asked me to go and stay with him. I did and we spent many hours reliving the good times in our marriage and decided to start again. The divorce never happened. I never applied for the Decree Absolute. I couldn’t remember why I’d ever behaved in the way I did. I couldn’t remember why I thought I’d fallen out of love with my husband.
In late 2021, a Pain Consultant prescribed Duloxetine (an SNRI antidepressant) for the relief of chronic pain caused by Peripheral Neuropathy. After about a month, I began to feel unwell. My anxiety levels increased as did irritability and argumentativeness. I didn’t associate this with the Duloxetine. I thought it was Lockdown blues combined with some family issues. I told the doctor I wanted to stop it but she told me that it was a good drug and to ‘stay with it’. I was miserable and snappy. My husband put it down to pain issues and was, as ever supportive. I lost friends and lost my confidence completely. I felt unable to mix with other people. My perceptions of myself were not ones I recognised.
We moved to NW England a year ago today. I was still fighting what I now know to be the paradoxical effects of Duloxetine. I decided to withdraw from the AD but didn’t do it slowly enough and rebound anxiety plagued me and led to the onset of migraine and neurological symptoms as I fought to stop history repeating itself.
I now understand what’s happened to me during the last 9 years. I’ve learned quite a lot about how the brain works. I know that there are no drugs to remove the pain of anxiety and depression. In my case drugs have created hideous side effects. We often walk along the beach when all the crowds have gone. We talk to each other, listen to music and take pleasure in small things. I avoid stressors such as crowds and noisy places. One or two external stressors cannot be removed so I am learning to practise acceptance of things I cannot change.
This forum recognises that doctors often fail to resolve, or even recognise, thyroid problems. Far, far worse though is the fact that they destroy minds and lives by inappropriately medicating with psychotropic drugs when optimally dosing with the correct thyroid hormones is what’s needed. Women suffer in similar ways with oestrogen and progesterone deficiencies which are treated with antidepressants.
it’s ironic that as a child of the fifties, I was never drawn into the drug culture of the time. I never smoked cannabis, sought out heroin or cocaine and my alcohol consumption was limited to occasional Cherry Bs or Babychams. Only when I reached sixty years of age was I ever offered mind altering drugs - and these came my way via medical professionals who thought that pharmaceuticals were the key to better health for minds and bodies.
I was also diagnosed with VM last year. I have a history of migraine since being a teenager. I can still vividly remember my first one around the age of 15 or 16. I genuinely thought I was dying. I was so nauseous, kept being sick, very unusual for me, and the pain in my head was horrendous.
I had no clue what it was and just thought it was a bug. Luckily my migraines, as I worked out what they were were pretty infrequent until I got diagnosed as hypo when they increased expedentially.
I tried no less than 7 anti sickness, Meniere's and migraine preventatives. In the end I'm on Venlafaxine, an SNRI. I couldnt tolerate Amytriptyline or Nortriptyline. Both gave me tremors and a racing heart. I'm not particularly happy about it as I've had bad experiences in the past with medication, often anti D's taken for Fibro.
But on the other hand the Venlafaxine has greatly decreased my symptoms. I can function and havent had a migraine in months. I'm not symptom free but I am much improved.
I've been told several times that you normally take these meds for around a year or so. To give the brain a rest and a reset and to break the vicious circle of dizziness and anxiety. Then gradually titrate down to see if you can manage without them. Certainly many of those on my migraine forum have successfully managed to do this and are living med free lives and are close to being as they were.
Of course some relapse and some decided the benefits of the medication outweigh the disadvantages and decided to stay on them long term. Its very individual. I'm looking at January to start very slowly trying without as I dont want to take them if I don't need to.
Much like thyroid migraine affects far more women than men but medics still dont understand the mechanics behind it, and even less with VM, which is considered rare. Migraine is very common but we still seem a long way off effective treatments with low side effects.
Until we understand how and why they happen and realise they are a neurological disease and not just a "headache" then we will continue to get beta blockers,blood pressure meds and antidepressants thrust at us. Crude hammers to crack the migraine nut.
I’m new to thyroid matters and undiagnosed with tests pending for all sorts but do have a chronic auto inflammatory condition diagnosed aged 17 now 61 called Adult Onset Stills Disease which for me manifests as rheumatoid disease. I had my first migraine in my early 30s and recently had what I think was my first VM and thought I was dying so this is interesting thank you. My question is does, and if so how, a thyroid migraine feel compared to normal migraine?
I don’t think that there’s a difference between a ‘thyroid migraine’ and a ‘normal migraine’. There are many different types of migraine and each can occur with both ‘thyroid’ people and ‘normal’ people (Whatever ‘normal’ means ☺️).
I’m told that first manifestations of vestibular migraine usually occur in older people.
At one time ‘older people’ could be defined as those who were in receipt of their state pension. This has now been complicated by so many changes in the qualifying age for pensions.
A friend of mine had horrendous migraines. Seriously ill each time. Hospitalised several times. I went on holiday with her and it was terrible to watch. She couldn't even keep fluids down. At that point I contacted a local GP who came out and gave her an anti sickness injection.. This seemed to turn the corner for her. She ended up at a specialist centre for Migraines in Manchester , they helped her a lot and they had reduced by altering her diet, but not gone. She was a single parent on a very tight budget, very very stressed. A few years later she inherited a lot of money and property from a distant Aunt. She hasn't needed to work since and live a lovely relaxed life, happy and fell in love. Her migraines disappeared..... Gone. She couldn't believe it. I hadn't seen her for a few years as had moved away. I couldn't believe how different she looked.So in her case high levels of stress was the cause.....
What a happy ending! So good to read stories like that. Prolonged stress is certainly key but there are often external stressors which are beyond our control. It’s learning how to manage those that’s so difficult.
The neurologist I’m seeing started the Migraine Centre in Manchester. He also founded a centre for Motor Neurone Disease. When I saw him on Saturday he was really keen to point out that migraines are a serious neurological disease. I’m often exasperated by people who claim to have a ‘migraine’ which then responds to a couple of Paracetamol and the next thing we know they’re going about their normal daily business.
I complete agree Everywhere 2. I think for her a the dietary alterations plus the elimination of extrene stress due to no money with a daughter to provide for, were enough. I've never seen someone so ill with Migraine. It was scary.
I've had a migraine twice in my life. Mine were probably due to hormonal changes at menopause. I had auras and a horrible kaleidoscope effect in my eye. I felt drained and poorly for about a week. Strangely no real headache. Therefore I was lucky as clearly mine was very mild but I had to lie down and rest. The first time I didn't know what it was and called in on an optician due to weird visual experience. He said its a migraine. Go home straight away and rest. Wise words. I was lucky.
Rest is so important. Lying down in a dark room has become a bit of a cliche but it’s certainly good advice. Most migraines involve sensory overload. Eliminating noise and light are the first steps to recovery.
Thanks Everywhere. Yes I did have a darkened room at first and slept a lot but then it was really about rest & quiet. Having seen how my friend was mine were nothing in comparison. They did occur out of the blue and came on suddenly. Menopause and Hypothyroidism were not a good mix! My GP offered me a prescription for a drug that I can't remember what is was called but you took it at the first sign of a migraine. I never used it because, touch wood, it hasn't happened. Well I did have a slight one - kailedescope effect in the eyes again but went to bed and luckily sleeping saw it off. By then I'd forgotten about the script.
I really hope you find what works for you best. It's a horrible condition to have to deal with. Big hugs x
Thank you waveylines 😊 I’ll be glad when I’ve found a medication that suits me. At the moment they’re not controlled.
Yesterday we went out for lunch. When I booked the table a while ago I forgot it was Bank Holiday weekend. The place was packed. I’d just started my meal when I realised that I was on the way to ‘Alice in Wonderland’. The noise was overwhelming and as I looked around the room, people seemed to be swaying and jumping up and down. Then the nausea set in. I left my meal and as soon as OH had finished his we went home, abandoning plans for the rest of the afternoon.
This is why prophylactic medication is so important. Making plans isn’t easy.
Your GP probably offered you one of the Triptans which you take at the first sign of a migraine. I used to have them but being on Venlafaxine has pretty much stopped them. They work by increasing serotonin levels in the brain, low levels of which scientists believe cause migraines. I found them rather hit and miss myself.
When my VM was at its worst I couldnt tolerate supermarkets, I felt so ill, the lights, noise, crowds, motion were unbearable. Even now fast moving screens or tv programmes make me flinch. And I'm very sensitive to loud noise but always have been. The visual vertigo has subsided a lot but not gone away.
Different things work for different people. Supplements don’t help me a great deal. I do take 400 mcg Magnesium a day which helps sleep, relaxes muscles and is a general support for relaxation.
I’m glad you’ve found something that helps you 😉
PS
I’ve just had to google mct oil. Never heard of it 🙈. Must say it looks very interesting and is something I’ll investigate further. Thank you 😊
I had never suffered headaches previous to sept 2021, until I stood up from watching a sports competition with friends, suddenly suffered zigzag vision that lasted about ten minutes and left me blind in my right eye.
I refused to acknowledge what had just happened, praying it would just go away, and refusing to go to hospital for 24 hours until I walked into a door and my husband bundled me into the car where MRI and CT scan confirmed a stroke. My sight has since improved enough to be able to drive again but hearing and general awareness on my right sight is impaired. I call it my confused side 😁.
About a year later a pain above the left eye complete with auras, nausea, and sensitivity to light and sound started. These episodes have reoccured only half a dozen times but are debilitating and frightening. I haven't been back to the doctors because I believe a lack of knowledge means their only option is to offer strong painkillers and Anti-D's which I don't want. I'm not even very tolerant of pain killers as anything with codeine makes me sick, so I manage these episodes with paracetamol and Ibrupofen.
I don't know whether these neurological problems are becoming more common or whether it appears that way because my attention is now drawn to them. There is MS in our family and previous to starting T3 I suffered some weird head stuff, and are the headaches even connected to my stroke 🤷♀️.
I'm pretty good at not letting it take over and life activities carry on. Onwards and upwards Everywhere2 😊. I'm sorry you have suffered neurological issues also.
To be fair there are a lot of migraine preventatives, antihistamines, beta blockers, blood pressure meds, anti epileptics. But GP's are pretty limited in what they can prescribe and in my experience with VM many really had no clue. Also new injectables CGRP drugs which can last from a month to 4 months depending on which one.
However these are last resort medications and can only be initiated by a consultant or migraine specialist when 3 other medications have been attempted. It took me 7 different medications to find one I could tolerate and which worked 😔
I’m glad to hear that you did eventually find something that worked for you 😊
If, as am I am, you have a sensitivity to several drugs options are limited. It’s a case of finding something that works but without disabling side effects.
The Migraine Trust heads up a significant amount of research into migraine which costs millions of pounds in lost days from work. New drugs are being researched all the time and the new injectables you mention are very promising.
Here’s an interesting link to CGRP which others may find interesting. It’s readable but not too complicated
I dont know how effective the CGRP drugs are for VM, the consensus on my migraine forum is somewhat mixed. We have a lot of international members, particularly from the US and I believe the FDA gave approval for them before we in the UK got the green light.
Some have found they've certainly reduced the frequency and intensity of the migraines but are less useful for dizziness, disequilibrium and other VM symptoms.
I'm notoriously drug sensitive, its very common for migraineurs as our nervous system are hyper excitable. I used to take a painkiller which I had used successfully for years until I took it one morning and had an anaphylactic reaction out of the blue. Ended up in A&E and told never to take that class of drugs again.
Morphine makes me incredibly itchy as do other opiates. As I also have Fibromyalgia it has made managing my condition very challenging. I couldn't tolerate Pregablin or Gabapentin, both commonly prescribed for Fibro.
After 7 failed attempts I was absolutely dreading starting Venlafaxine. I started on a tiny dose and gradually built up over several weeks. I always get the extended release version as I find it much gentler on the system. I did feel quite nauseous for a few months but it has now gone. A well known side effect with SNRI's.
I think the answer with any drug is slow titration for people like us. Glad to hear that you’re now successfully taking Venlafaxine. I hope it works well for you and you’re able to get these wretched migraines under control 😘
I’m at that point. I’m dreading having to “try” loads of different preventative meds. I don’t do well with medication, especially the cheap generic stuff. Makes me throw up and I get uncontrollable migraines.
It is blighting my life though. So I know I’ll have to try something soon 😔
One of the best preventatives I ever had for migraine (uncomplicated) was Propranalol. It’s a beta blocker that’s used very often for migraine. Unfortunately it inhibits the conversion of FT4 to FT3 so is a ‘No No’ for most people who take thyroid meds (except those who take T3 only).
I’m afraid that it will be a case of ‘trial and error’ and I hope that you soon find something that suits you.
I was offered that in lockdown, on the phone by a GP. No checks whatsoever. I got the prescription but never too them. My migraines had stepped up a notch and nothing was helping. I upped my levo a tiny bit and things calmed down. Did a home blood test, FT4 almost bottom of range. Spoke to my proper GP, she did bloods and upped my T4 more. It is definitely a bad thing for me to have very low thyroid levels (had years of them, including vomiting etc before diagnosis). I’m sure I lost months of my life due to the migraines associated with low thyroid levels.
I will mention about the issues with the conversion if my GP mentions propranolol again. I convert very slowly. I’m on T4/T3 combo
Thanks again. Hope you have a nice relaxing day ☺️🧁
I was mostly ignored. They got all happy when they found my iron reserves were low. 6 months on iron tablets. They put me on amytriptaline 10mg for a while to help me sleep and supposedly reduce my migraines. Didn’t work either. Went up to 20mg for 6 months and that helped to add 10lb + in my weight. Even sent me to talking sleep therapy. I still laugh at putting my concerns and stresses into a box on a boat - most people are too big for the box 🤣
It’s funny that taking thyroid replacement hormones helps me sleep 🤨
I already have substantial neurological deficit on my right side due, I’m told to Peripheral Neuropathy. As PN usually affects the body bilaterally, I think it’s possible that some earlier VMs have escaped attention because they were only mildly symptomatic but have affected my right side.
Migraines are also right sided and I am generally weak on my right sad. I drag my right leg a little. I had right sided thyroid cancer, right sided breast cancer and a right knee replacement. I told the neurologist that if I were to draw a vertical line down the middle of my face and body, my left side could be identified as my ‘best’ side. He found this very interesting. I find it a damned nuisance. ☺️
I’m afraid that a true migraineur is seldom able to resolve migraine pain with OTC analgesics. This has nothing to do with the degree of pain. It’s explained by the ‘stomach shutdown’ which accompanies migraine combined with nausea. Absorption is almost non existent and medications are often vomited back
Prophylactic meds are given to people who have more than 12 migraines a month and believe me, we are glad to have them as otherwise it’s impossible to live a normal life
Abortive medications will usually stop a migraine in its tracks but obviously if someone is experiencing multiple migraines it’s not realistic or desirable to be taking so many ‘high dose’ abortives.
If I could cope in any other way I would. No one wants to take psychotropic drugs or heavyweight painkillers. Sadly though you can’t be a hero if you have migraine
I started with my first migraine 63 years ago. I had the aura and it was frightening. I was lucky the school nurse asked me about what I had eaten ( a pear). She told me never to eat this on an empty stomach. Strong coffee also affects me only on an empty stomach. Only the aura which last about 30 minutes or so I never have the headache. In fact I have never had a headache. I have had less than 10/15 in my life I know that the aura only lasts around 30 minutes the fastest way to rid it is to eat something filling.
The only other time I have dizziness is when my FT3 is too low.
I have never even smoked let alone taken drugs, sounds boring. I also don't go to the GP if I can help it. I take Hawthorn extract to keep my BP at a good level.
Your story sounds terrible I hope that you can get better soon.
I think the lesson learned is to keep away from prescribed drugs - particularly antidepressants. I’m sure I’d have had a far better time on LSD.
We constantly hear in the news that doctors are concerned that too many people are taking ADs 😞. Where on earth do they think we get them from? What doctors never tell us is that the ‘discontinuation syndrome’ as it’s euphemistically called is a nightmare in itself - mainly because doctors underestimate how bad the symptoms are and the slow withdrawal which is necessary. I still hear doctors say it takes about two weeks ro withdraw from an AD. In their dreams 😩
I was given Prozec back in 1994 I only took it for two weeks. I had two accidents when driving up to see my Mother one day, the first I clipped a curb, the second going very slowly out of a fairly narrow opening I clipped the wall. Both on the same day I had been driving for over thirty years at that time. I knew straight away that something wasn't right I felt weird in the head. Anyway, I stopped them that very day. You are right on the point who do they think gives these pills to people ah I know DOCTORS.
Prozac had a dreadful effect on me. Apart from the fact that I suffered what I now know to be this hideous paradoxical reaction, I felt suicidal. The response of my GP was to keep increasing the dose.
I’d never taken drugs of any sort before I had this, so I was totally unprepared for this. The fact that I later discovered that I was never depressed anyway and was extremely undermedicated was another pill I couldn’t swallow.
It’s a ghastly drug and upsets thyroid levels with impunity - so that was a double whammy.
I was lucky then as I never had a thyroid problem until I was 67 no hashis either.
Low FT3 can cause similar effects on the body though. I have been through it too.
I have a best friend back in the UK. We both went to school with another girl who
I shall not name. Anyway back some 25 plus years ago she committed suicide whilst
on Prozac leaving three children. When my BP increased for the first time last year my GP gave me some medication but it made me feel swick after a few days. I goggled natural solutions and it came up with Hawthorn extract. It's the German GP's that actually prescribe it for their patients. I have been on it for just over a year and it works wonders.
Really glad to hear that you found a supplement that works. I’ve heard of this being used for heart conditions and I suppose high BP is a cardiac issue.
Suicidal ideation is quite common with all antidepressants but is a particular issue with Prozac. Young men are particularly vulnerable
Like many of us, I have been where you are with the pain and headaches.
Eventually, I worked out what worked best for me was CBD, feverfew (excellent for migraines not so much for tension type headaches), high dose of omega 3.
I won’t bore you with a long story, but my mum had terrible reactions to being put on drug after drug back in the 1970s when she was struggling with (possible) early menopause and a nervous breakdown. One day she just flushed them all down the loo and came off everything cold turkey. I was only about 11, but I remember how she was. When she had bad tremors, I would try and hold her to stop the shaking. She went down to about 6 stone in weight and I used to make up complan for her with raw eggs and milk to get nourishment into her.
These days she reacts to almost everything. Can’t take paracetamol etc. Luckily she is fairly well at the age of 85. No one (except me really) accepts that her body doesn’t want this stuff. She even refused morphine when she broke her leg years ago as that makes her sick too. Unfortunately, I am similar.
Stress and anxiety are terrible. I have to regularly calm my mum as she frets about things she doesn’t understand or can’t deal with as she’s got older.
I wish you well and hope things improve for you. Thankfully your hubby has stuck with you, he’s obviously someone very special
He is. 😊. I sometimes say “I’m lucky to have found you” to which he invariably replies “I was never really lost” 🤣🤣
I’m sorry to hear your mum’s sad story. This must have been a huge thing for you to deal with at eleven years of age 😢 and you’re still supporting your mum now.
Multiple Drug Intolerance is a problem I have to deal with. My GP told me once that this is caused by slow metabolism. The drug isn’t being excreted fast enough and the next and subsequent doses cause an ‘overdosing’ effect. I’m sure that there’s more to it then but I like to keep it simple. It makes sense to me. Antibiotics seem to be the worst drugs for me in that respect. Side effects always kick in at Day 3.
Anxiety and depression are hideous conditions and are so misunderstood by many who think that “Calm down” or “Pull yourself together” are useful advice 😩. I’m only now beginning to understand the complexity of these conditions and what causes them. For me, sublimating my feelings was a huge factor. To a large extent, I still do that. A friend told me very recently that they could never imagine me being anxious or depressed as I always seemed so ‘together’ and I’d held down a very stressful job so well.
What people see is not necessarily the reality. That’s just a pretence and it’s worked really well for me for many years.
I think you’re right about your mum not being able to deal with things as she gets older. We do tend to fret about things we don’t really understand and the problem is that the older we get, the less we understand.
Thank you for your kind words and best wishes to you and mum 😘
Thank you. Your post has been very interesting to read, plus the replies too. People always found that difficult to understand with my mum too as she was always helping everyone with a cheery smile.
Strangely, one of the things that upset me the most when mum was poorly was that my dad always forgot the fabric softener with the washing machine and my socks were always stiff to pull on 😂
Stopped using FC quite a few years ago now. I put soda crystals in the washing powder drawer. It helps to soften to water and keep limescale down. Like you say, hard towels are a small price to pay
👍. We have a gallon container of that somewhere. I went through a phase of using it for toilet cleaning. White vinegar, sodium bicarbonate and a splash of bleach. Makes a nice ‘volcano’
Wow my heart goes out to you and many thanks for sharing your story. These reactions to SSRIs are unusual but they do happen. Ruinous ! I am so sorry this happened to you: medications can be very strong and prescribers are meant to know this stuff. Thank goodness for the yellow card system and thank goodness for pharmacists xxx
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I thought I was getting better ...
Do I rearrange Endo appointment?
NHS Endocrinologist just told me I was hypERthyroid not HypO, and to stop T3 as it was damaging me. Am I wrong?!
Where do I go from here?????
First Endo appointment was not what I expected!!!
