My stomach pain nearly everytime I eat these days has gotten out of hand. I'm cutting the Glyset back because I think it's the cause of my GI problems and I don't really need to be on it. Hopefully this will work. The pain has gotten to the point where food disgusts me. I'm dreading eating. Not fun. So far, cutting back on the Glyset seems to be helping.

I also ran low on Atenolol before realizing I needed to mail the prescription in to get it refilled. Oops. I cut the pills in half to have at least SOME to get me through tomorrow. I hope my pills will come in the mail by then. If not... then this will be fun. In the mean time withdrawing from Atenolol is like having a shot of adrenaline hit you all at once (though not as bad as Paxil withdrawal) and my POTS symptoms have been worse the past couple of days. I've been back on the cane. The looks you get when you're my age (20) walking around with a cane are pretty priceless. Especially when it's an old person who looks like they're thinking to themselves "well, it could be worse."

Withdrawal Day 4

Today I just had a headache on the withdrawal front. I also may have dropped a couple additional pounds. It's hard to tell though.

The big event today was the worst abdominal pain EVER. I had a salad with lettuce, bell peppers, banana peppers, black olives, feta cheese and ranch dressing. I've had similar salads before with little to no problem. Today I was cramped up in SEVERE pain for hours. I was in class when all this was happening. After a trip to the bathroom it resolved itself more or less but was not an experience I'd like to relive. I've had some issues with raw bell peppers before but NEVER like that.

I think maybe I'm better able to concentrate off the Florinef. I went to the library today and read semi-boring economics literature for an hour and a half without breaking at all. This is not a normal feat for me. What sucks is that I was on Flornief for almost 5 years... I have no idea how I worked back then. All I know is that these days I seem to be concentrating better. Yay!

Withdrawal Day 3 and Possible Allergic Reaction

Today's withdrawal symptoms were pretty mild. My weight loss seems to have settled at around 6 pounds since Friday. I've been pretty clear headed and not too bad off on the POTS symptoms front.

One of my friends came into class today with an absolutely horrid cold. I strongly feel that people with raging colds should do us all a favor and stay home. This semester, as much as I have going on, I can't afford to get sick(er). With this in mind I went to the drugstore to buy some Airborne tablets, which I've never tried.

First of all, it was about the most intense crazy taste I've ever had of anything. Once that subsided I settled in my room. Going to the bathroom a few minutes later I noticed some redness on my face around my mouth. In addition, there was some mild swelling of my lips and maybe a bit of my tongue. Also whenever I stood up there was instant tachycardia. I didn't go to get this checked out because it didn't get worse, just got kind of weird. I asked my roommates if they noticed anything and they agreed that there was some redness and mild swelling. Even now the redness is still there to a lesser extent and I look like I've just put on a bunch of lipstick (my lips in the winter are normally pretty pale). To me, it's not worth going to the ER in the middle of the night in the snow, so I'm gonna sleep on it. I'm guessing this is a mild allergic reaction to the Airborne... unless I've suddenly developed an allergy to arena nachos that takes effect an hour later.

EDIT: So I just looked at the container of Airborne and apparently I was supposed to drop the tablet in water and then drink it instead of eating it whole. Wow. That might explain all this. I really need to start reading labels more often. Today I opened one of my roommate's packages thinking it was mine. Maybe withdrawal from Flornief is making me clearheaded but stupid? Sometimes I wonder how I made to being a Junior in college with a pretty solid GPA.

Withdrawal Day 2

Todays withdrawal symptoms (at least, I think they're withdrawal) have been a headache and some feverlike activity. But the headache wasn't anything that some Ibuprofen couldn't knock out so I'm fine now. I managed to get my laundry done today (hauling it via rolling suitcase two blocks to the laundromat... not the ideal situation but it works).

I basically stopped taking my birth control as well. I ran out of it the other week and although I have a fresh supply I think I'm going to give it a rest for a while. I've been on it for about a year and half and I haven't heard good things about being on birth control long term. Since I have no reason to be on it right now, might as well give it a rest. Both birth control and Florinef are notorious for weight gain. Since I've stopped taking them both I've lost about 5 pounds.

I've begun doing a bit of exercise here and there but what I've been doing I KNOW can't be responsible for a 5 pound weight loss in a few days.

I guess I'll enjoy this new lightness while I have it since Atenolol has weight gain as a side effect.

Random Anecdote

I go to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for my medical stuffs. This center frequently gets ranked among the best hospitals in the country with a wide array of specialties. They can treat pretty much anything there.

When I was at the doc's office yesterday, he attempted to enter "postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome" into the diagnosis field in the computer. It came back with an error message, saying that it was an invalid entry.

For a hospital as big and supposedly as great as UPMC to not recognize POTS just shows how rare this thing is. I don't know the exact figures of how many people have POTS, but I read somewhere that it was 500,000 in the US. For a population of 300 million people, that equals 0.17% of the population that has this disorder. Pretty freakin' rare.

Also, I'm having my first day off the Florinef today. So far all is well. I was a little foggy and feverish at the beginning of the basketball game (I'm in the pep band) but that has subsided.