In September of 2015, I was put on a heavy duty drug that is commonly used to combat nausea. Its efficacy encourages doctors to prescribe this medication to patients going through chemotherapy. Or, in my case, severe nausea from unknown - and likely multiple - causes.
This medication worked some wonders. After a month or two, my nausea was greatly diminished, my skin was clear (no abscesses, no skin infections, no sign of psoriasis. But the most shocking improvement was that of my Crohn's and Pouchitis. After over 15 years of chronic and frequent diarrhea, my bowels worked like a healthy person!
Unfortunately, the medication also knocked me on my ass. I spent about nine months in bed, sleeping an average of 20 hours a day, drenching all of my clothing in cold sweats regularly throughout the day, becoming even MORE drowsy, and completely depleting my energy.
So..with more damage than benefits, I was instructed to drop the medication from my regimen. I have now been off of the medication for a few months, and it has taken this long to even START to recuperate from it. I finally have days with energy and I am having fewer and fewer cold sweats.
Of course, with the improvement of those symptoms comes the returning bowel symptoms, psoriasis outbreaks, extreme nausea, and staph infections under my skin.
Gotta go with the best of the worst... after a nearly one year battle against even more debilitating side effects. What a mess!
Sometimes the hardest part of these unfortunate experiences is that I have nothing and no one to blame it on. No one is at fault here. My doctor was eagerly trying to find me some relief, and there is no way of knowing how a new drug or therapy of ANY kind will affect me. Frankly, it is all trial and error.
And it's tough.
But at least things seem to be back on track for the most part. Now if I could only get rid of these awful cold sweats!