dr_pretentious: (Default)
Sarah Avery ([personal profile] dr_pretentious) wrote2006-03-13 10:53 pm

What the Label Really Means, or Rough Weather Ahead

"If condition persists, consult your doctor." Straightforward, right? No, not so much. Apparently, if you follow the dosing instructions on a bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol for any prolonged period of time--like, say, three months--you can tox out your liver. Apparently, the doctors who told me that tylenol would do just fine, now that I can't take ibuprofen or any of its NSAID cousins, never considered the possibility that I'd try the extra-strength tylenol. Considering that most people with the chronic pain diagnosis I have take opiates as daily maintenance drugs, I don't know why it didn't occur to them that I'd choose the stronger over-the-counter version over the weaker one. As far as I knew, I had consulted my doctor.

So now, until the bloodwork says my liver is happy, no more painkillers for little me. At all.

Maybe the lab will have something nice to say about my blood, and I'll be in the clear.

Just in case, though, I figured I'd give y'all a heads-up. I may be less useful than usual for a little while. As I discovered back in November, asking for help isn't the end of the world. (Who knew?) It's possible I might have to do that again.

[identity profile] reynaud.livejournal.com 2006-03-14 10:06 am (UTC)(link)
Your condition gives you synesthesia? Wow. Of all the conditions I've heard about, that one is the one I'd probably most like to have. Although I've heard there are some really awful versions of it, like tasting sounds, where most of the tastes are pretty nasty. But I'd love to be able to see sounds.

Admittedly, it sounds like in general you'd trade that in for a day without pain.

Was this just from the messed up ankle?

[identity profile] dr-pretentious.livejournal.com 2006-03-14 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Nope, I've always had it, though it wasn't diagnosed until I was a couple of years into grad school. Before that, my doctors told me it was all in my head, and that everybody else was in just as much pain as I was, and I believed them. I really thought the synaesthesia was normal.

Most of the time, I can keep the fibromyalgia in remission with low doses of unexciting medications, with a bit of Tai Chi and yoga on the side. Most years I have a week or two of crash-and burn when something knocks me off my equilibrium, but I have a repertoire of skills now that allow me to pull out of flares in fairly short order. Getting by with no analgesics will mean more Tai Chi, more yoga, more massage, and more care to avoid little injuries and catching colds. It's the disruption between one stretch of equilibrium and the next that's always a bitch.