Changing of the (Prescription) Guard »
About a month ago, I started adding Zonegran to my daily regimen of drugs. I'm stll not quite sure how I feel about this.
I've been taking Dilantin for a while now - about 20 years. I know that some people aren't really fans of Dilantin. I don't know that I am. But it's been around for a long time. Talk about the benefits of dealing with a known evil versus an unknown one.
I had done really well with Dilantin, until about three years ago, when I had a seizure - the first in a very long time (16 years long). This one could have been due to a very low level of phenytoin (the generic name for Dilantin) in my bloodstream, so we chalked it up to that and moved on.
About 18 months later, I had another. This one had a marginally low level of phenytoin, but also a severe lack of sleep over a long weekend, so again we chalked it up to abnormal circumstances and moved on. I also had been trying the generic drug, and determined that maybe that was contributing - so back to the brand name I went.
That went great until December of 2005, when I had another seizure, about 14 months after the last one. Not only were they getting more frequent, they were getting more severe - and this time, the level in my blood was fine, I was good on my rest, I had been eating well (as well as normal, anyway) and there it was.
Not only that, but my doctor was really grating on me. Ever have one of those visits where you feel like you are the one who is intruding on their time? I did. Every time I saw this guy. We had picked him after an insurance switch, and were really starting to feel like it was time for another change.
Because of yet more insurance changes, we figured that perhaps we could go back to the last doctor, who we really liked, and after finding out we could, and talking with him, we decided that perhaps it was time to change drugs. So here I am.
I actually started a new blog in the process. Why a new blog? Two reasons, really. One, because I'm tired of doing design. I want to simplify. Of course, in the process, I've taken the basic template and chopped it up a bit, but it is still essentially the stock layout, just lazy-fied. Two, because I didn't feel like it fit.
The new blog is more of a 'tracking' blog. The intention was actually to do more tracking of things like gadget purchases and movies and television shows, but at the moment it's a race between those TV shows and the medication switch. It just didn't feel right leaving it here.
I think that over time, I will likely keep that as more of a diary of sorts, I'll actually get around to moving the technical content into some format on Everitz Consulting, like I've been talking about for a while, and this will become more of a commentary - on those two and on others. I think the separation will be good for all. But who knows. Maybe it will all end up back here. We'll see.
I guess I'm going to have to wait on introducing advertising for a while because of all the prescription talk...
Comments (1)
I considered a separate blog when I found out about my parasite. But my blog is me and I'm a person with many facets and I decided to just through everything there. Although my father hates it when I make political posts and he sends me emails warning me I'm going to lose my readership. I don't have quite the fetish for catagorizaiton that you do. My mental illness goes in different directions.
If I was to guess, I would guess you're either a first born or an only child. But I could be surprised.
As for the medical profession, my opinion has dropped quite a bit in the last six months. If they had to solve the kind of problems you and I do, they'd fail miserably. They're like robots in that they just do what fits in the box. Unfortunately, you have to be a wise consumer. Don't trust those suckers for a moment. It's no skin off their nose if they get it wrong.
Posted by Ted on March 16, 2006 3:43 PM