#adverse effects

As if there are not one million other sedatives she could have tried first that weren't an antipsychotic that has a high potential of being medically dangerous to me.

I guess thank the gods I was only one one miligram, because if shit was this bad on such a low doze than gods know what would've happened at a higher dose.

Now I know the state of psychiatry is pretty dire and that interactions and side effects are one thousand spins of a wheel, but I do not understand how this got prescribed to me.

Hello!

Just reading your novel and wanted to make some sketches. Sorry if they look a bit clumsy or if I didn't imagine everything properly—I'm not good enough in English. Still, I wanted to set down how I saw it. Thank you for your work; it makes my days better :)

As the day stretched on into evening with no word from his brother, each hour that passed by deepening the well of dread that began to form, it became more and more clear that something was very, very wrong.

Whumptober day 1: Adverse Effects, "This wasn't supposed to happen"

A couple of days ago, for my birthday, I documented my fourth adverse reaction to a popularly-prescribed medication. None of which my doctor had even heard were possible, none of which I was warned about by my pharmacist.

Four times now, I've developed "a whole new disease" 6 to 18 months after starting a new medication. Four times I eventually thought to google my most recent medication and my current symptoms, and found that it was possible that I could be experiencing a (supposedly) "one per thousand" or even "one per ten thousand" person adverse reaction. Four times I asked my doctor to substitute a different medication, and lo and behold, the problem went away. Four fucking times.

And three of those four times, before I did so, I brought up the new problem as part of a physical, in front of a physician who had my whole chart in front of her, then she prescribed a new medication to treat my new symptoms, and I filled that prescription at a pharmacy where the pharmacist was looking right at a screen listing every medication I was taking. They both have degrees in this shit. Why was I the one who had to figure this out?

And also, bullshit that these adverse reactions are that rare. No way in hell I "won" a 1:1000 or 1:10000 lottery four times. And I know why, too: because I'm old, and I'm fat, and that meant that my doctor and my pharmacist "knew" what was causing my "new disease," either my age or my weight.

Skin dying and sloughing off around a recent incision? Yeah, that happens to old people and to fat people, they don't always heal well, just keep applying your antibiotic until it does. (Neomycin allergy: tissue necrosis.)

Mental fog and increasing dementia? Yeah, that happens to old people, nothing can be done. (Wellbutrin: mental fog. Lisinopril: mental fog.)

High blood sugar? Yeah, that happens to fat people, lose weight. (Thiazide diuretic: high blood sugar.)

And all four times, insisting on switching to a different medication solved the problem.

Oh, and that doesn't even count the fact that I was misdiagnosed with "drug seeking behavior" for telling my surgeons that the opiates were having no effect, despite the highly visible clue of my bright-red beard: I inherited the genes that make me totally opiate non-responsive. Count that as a fifth adverse drug reaction, if you like.

(Never mind that I wasn't asking for higher doses, I was telling them to stop prescribing opiates; that was "a clever ruse." And, oh, yeah, one clever nurse practitioner had heard of my condition and recommended I bully the doctor into prescribing Tramadol instead, which doesn't work perfectly, but provides some relief if I don't overuse it.)

So do not believe that an adverse reaction is as rare as the company says it is if and only if it's an adverse reaction that medical professionals are eager to explain away as having nothing to do with the medication, one they're eager to jump to conclusions and blame on age or weight or sex. Because in those cases, you're not measuring the adverse reactions, you're measuring the number of people with those reactions who fought to get them counted.

You have to have noticed by now that we tell people (or at least the white college-educated people) that they have to be "their own health advocates," but how in the hell is that supposed to even work, when we're not the ones with degrees in medicine and years' worth of experience with these conditions?

So, please pass this advice along to anybody who's on any medication for a chronic condition, anything they're going to have to take for years or forever to manage the symptoms of some supposedly incurable condition:

Any time you develop new symptoms, google-search each medication that you are taking, one at a time, followed by the symptom you've just recently developed. If you find any matches, no matter how rare it says they are, ask the doctor who prescribed that earlier medicine to suggest an alternative and try that before you let them add another medication.

Because otherwise you could end up one pill that treats your symptoms, but creates a new illness, so they give you another pill to treat that illness, and it causes a third illness, until you end up on so many pills that you're a walking biochemical disaster site. In fact, any time you meet someone (or if you are someone) who's taking, say, four or more separate medications for symptomatic relief, swap out the oldest medications for alternatives, the ones they've been taking the longest, until you rule out iatrogenic illness. Do not, not, not let them add a fifth, a sixth, whatever medication until you have ruled out adverse reactions. Your very life may depend on it!

Whumptober 2022 | No. 1: A LITTLE OUT OF THE ORDINARY

adverse effects | Unconventional Restraints | “this wasn’t supposed to happen”

Whumptober 2022 | no. 1: A Little Out of the Ordinary

Adverse effects | Unconventional Restraints | “This was not supposed to happen”

House of the Dragon S01E04

Thank you <33

the long awaited continuation is here folks, and still several days late! (part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six)

Whumptober No 1. A Little Out of the Ordinary

Adverse Effects | Unconventional Restraints | “This Wasn’t Supposed to Happen”

The next time Civilian woke up they were screaming. Something was crawling up the inside of their arm, a razorblade making its way through their veins. Their other hand flew up, blindly clawing at the pain. Somehow, their fingers caught around something round and flexible. They grabbed onto it tight and pulled.

“Civilian, stop!”

A voice, rapid footsteps, and then a weight on the bed next to them. Gloved hands wrapping around their own and lifting them away. A frustrated, agonized growl crawled out of Civilians's throat. The fire was all around them now, burning and itching under their skin. Their eyes were closed tight against the overwhelming onslaught, hot tears leaking out.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” The voice sounded frantic, somewhat breathless. Familiar. “Can you look at me, Civilian? Where are you right now?”

Their head spun. How were they meant to answer that many questions? They couldn't even remember the questions they'd been asked. The only thing they could think of was—

“Hhnn, h-hurts,” they managed, throat burning with the effort it took to breathe.