Thursday throttling

This past Thursday provided to be a challenge, but that evening/night even more so. It made me more determined than ever to make changes.

This past Thursday, I had a dental hygienist appointment. I knew it was in June, “the twenty-somethingth”, but hadn’t remembered specifically until I got the reminder text from the dental practice. As I said on my personal Facebook, that morning, “I’m not even remotely into it.” I knew I couldn’t cancel the appointment because that I wouldn’t be able to get a new one for at least six months—maybe as much as eight—which would only make matters worse. As I half-jokingly put it on Facebook:

That’d be too long, especially since I’m sure she’ll need the industrial-grade scrapers and grinders as it is. No doubt mining drills would be needed if I put it off that long.

The issue is, as it has been for quite some time, the extreme fatigue I’ve been dealing with for the past several months, something I talked about a little a month ago today. Because of that, I sometimes simply didn’t have enough energy to use the small interdental brushes I’m supposed to use every night (in addition to ordinary brushing). I felt certain that there’d be a lot of cleaning needed, and it was that I was dreading the most (the discomfort mainly, but the hygienist is so nice that I also felt a little guilty about not doing my part).

It turned out that it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be—maybe my diligence using those tiny brushes before the fatigue set in made a difference? In any event, it went well, and I made my next appointment for six months and also an appointment for my annual check up with my dentist, one right after the other, so only one trip, which is a bonus.

After that, I went and ran a couple errands, and headed back home. And that’s when everything changed.

About an hour or so after I got home, I started feeling yucky, with a bit of a headache and “flulike symptoms”, and no, it wasn’t the plague: Thursday was the first time I’d been out and about in around two or three weeks, and one doesn’t catch Covid and develop symptoms all within a couple hours, anyway. I thought to myself that all that picking and scraping and grinding at and below my gum line probably released a bunch of bacteria into my system. Still, the paracetamol I took helped. I took some more before I went to bed.

Around 4:30am, I woke up and felt absolutely awful. I got up to pee and to take some more paracetamol. I started shivering like nothing I’ve experienced for many, many years. I felt so very cold, and I put on a pair of track pants, a sweatshirt, and threw an extra blanket on the bed. Leo snuggled up close, too. I gradually warmed up.

Any problem with my health always gives me pause, because I’m alone (although, Leo really did help that night). However, I knew that having been a “hermit” for a some weeks meant I couldn’t have caught anything, and, anyway, if I went to get checked out I’d have to wait around 8 hours (or more—due to extra long waiting times) to be seen, so I felt staying home and trying to sleep was the best option. I was right. I slept a lot, and felt better in the morning, though tired all day because of the ordeal.

What was weird about it, aside from how it seemed to have come out of nowhere, is that my temperature was normal: I didn’t have a fever (I checked, of course). The shivering could have been caused by my body attempting to raise its temperature in order to fight off infection, including from bacteria.

Whatever that was all about, it passed nearly as quickly as it showed up. I think I may have been more susceptible to such things because of that constant deep fatigue I’ve been dealing with, something I think is being caused by the blood pressure medication I was changed to (because the manufacturer of my old drug discontinued it). I’ll be switching to a different prescription next month, something I’m hoping will fix the problem. If not, there are plenty more to try.

I began the new blood pressure medicine in August, and the first few days were utter hell. I started another drug, a diuretic, at the same time, and that drug definitely caused problems of its own. The thing is, what I was feeling and experiencing in the time after that was confused and conflated because there were several different, recently-changed prescription drugs, and things kept changing with Covid Lockdowns and other things. So, in a sense, I never really had a chance to work out what was happening or what the cause was.

We’ve now had months with little change, and no change to the prescriptions. It was early April when my energy levels crashed, and they never came back. My diet is pretty much the same, Leo is well, I (mostly) stay home by choice, not requirement, and am healthy, even if I don’t feel great. By process of elimination, the mostly likely culprit is the blood pressure medication. In the past, doctors have noted my complaints of fatigue, but haven’t really done much to deal with that. Now that it seems to be the cause of my fatigue, maybe they will? In any case, it’s also given me a dry cough, and that’s reason enough for them to try giving me a different drug.

The important thing, then, is that this has been an issue I’ve been dealing with for months, and it’s made my life difficult—but no more: I’m going to push and keep pushing until I find a solution that helps me feel better. Maybe the weirdness last week was the push I needed, a bit of steel to reinforce the strength of my resolve. I don’t know where this is heading, but, frankly, even a small change would be a huge change.

Important note: This is about my own personal health journey. My experiences are my own, and shouldn’t be taken as indicative for anyone else. Similarly, other people may have completely different reactions to the same medications I take—better or worse. I share my experiences because others may have the same or similar experiences, and I want them to know that they’re not alone. But, as always, discuss your situation and how you’re feeling openly, honestly, and clearly with your own doctor, and always feel free to seek a second opinion from another doctor.