MS.. why some meds are so important!

Yesterday, Friday, was a very strange day for me.  It's worth beginning with Thursday, as it seems this is when things got out of whack for me, yet I hadn't realized it until yesterday in the early evening.


Mom, Dad and I celebrated my Dad's birthday on Thursday, at the restaurant of his choice after two doctor's appointments.  In the afternoon, the three of us were scheduled to see one of the nurse practitioners at our endocrinologist's office (all of us had good results) and afterwards, Mom and I had appointments with the chiropractor.  The problem was that I had fallen asleep later than usual the night before.  I had forgotten to take my night medications until later than usual and this was why I wasn't able to rise as early as I had planned.  Aside from taking insulin, I did not take my daytime medications Thursday as I never take them on an empty stomach.  I wasn't concerned, though, as I do not make a habit of skipping any of my pills.  And we really did have a lovely time together.  My parents are truly spectacular and I love being Daddy's princesita.

Since I hadn't taken any medications and felt quite well, I decided to see how I would feel if I didn't take my nighttime meds either.  Ugh, big mistake!  I've become accustomed to laying my head down on my pillow and drifting off to sleep moments later, thanks to a few of the medications I take a couple hours before heading off to bed.  Without these pills, my mind kept wandering to a dozen different subjects, causing me to lay awake for quite a while.  Aside from that, I had the most vivid dreams, not all of which were pleasant, whereas most nights I sleep very deep and awaken well rested.  When I awoke Friday morning, I felt more tired than I had when I went to bed the night before and spent much of the afternoon yawning, yawning and yawning some more.  There wasn't enough coffee to wake me up!  Every time Dorraine looked at me, I was in the middle of yawning so my dear friend found herself yawning all afternoon, too.  So sorry!


While Dorraine was at my house, I started having the strangest pain in my right foot.  I don't remember having this exact sensation before but it was absolutely horrible and maddening.  It's very common in MS to have strange, itchy feelings on different parts of the body and I usually feel this on my legs and back, but even more so on my feet.  The itching on the top of my right foot was making me insane but then it got worse when this terrible stabbing began and didn't stop for a few hours.  Since the itching isn't a rarity for me, I smear some extra strength anti-itch cream on the affected area and it tends to help after a little while but since it was accompanied by a stabbing pain, the cream didn't do too much for me this time.  I just had wait and see if it would pass, which it finally did.

Of course, the itchy, achy foot couldn't be the end of my troubles for the day! Without realizing it, I had forgotten to refill one of my medications into my weekly pill container on Tuesday (when my parents picked my refill up) and it was one of the most important meds I take!  I was feeling "off" from the moment I woke up Friday morning but attributed it to not sleeping too well but by early evening, my head felt as if it was filled with rocks and I was feeling dizzy on top of it.  What was happening?  And then I remembered what this feeling meant.  My vertigo was kicking in so I checked my weekly medications and sure enough, the pills I had ready for the next few days had one medicine missing, the Meclizine!  Meclizine is my anti-vertigo medication and I cannot live without this one for more than a day or I feel the effects very drastically.  I had probably not taken it on Wednesday, nothing on Thursday and it wasn't with my meds for the day on Friday.  No wonder I felt so crappy!  I took my three little pills as soon as I could and should be feeling back to normal by tomorrow afternoon, although I feel much better already.  I really hate needing to depend on medications as much as I do, but this goes to show how necessary some of these meds really are.  At least tomorrow SHOULD be a better day. :)