Thursday April 8, 2004
One of the things my doc and I talked about yesterday was the prescribed dosage of Atarax and the fact that I had found it to be insufficient to help me sleep a whole night. The original Rx was 10 mg tabs, 1-2 tabs max 3 times a day. Also that the drug was supposed to reduce anxiety as well as address the itch problem and that was one of the reasons she'd Rx'd it.
My experience was slightly reduced itch but mainly wooziness and I ended up sleeping a lot, although most of it not at night and not in one go. When the PDR was consulted, it turned out the dosage I'd been prescribed was that for children (itching due to chicken pox, etc). The wooziness had kept me from increasing the dose on my own. (BTW, the first opportunity I'd been given to discuss this medication with her was yesterday. And then only because I was unsettled enough by my mushroom status to get in her face so to speak.)
It was agreed that I could increase the dosage significantly without worry. And I did so last night, taking 3 of these little pink babies before bed. (I was rather agitated and unable to relax until I went for a walk to Tim Horton's, got a couple of donuts and had a good cry on the way back.)
The downside: I didn't get to sleep until 1 am. The upside: I slept for 5 straight hours.
Earlier this morning I took an (one) Atarax because I was feeling slightly itchy and now feel a bit groggy and still itchy. I am afraid to have a 'nap' because I may sleep too long: opportunely, I have a psych appt at noon today. Maybe I'll set the alarm.
[see continued... link for more about diet - another topic that hadn't been given any air time since the discovery of my liver impairment last week.]
Originally I'd posed the question of what I should or shouldn't be eating to the assistant when she'd called on Friday (to tell me it wasn't Hep A through Z and that I was to have another blood test on Monday). Her response: eat things that are easy to digest. I wasn't sure what this meant, since I'd never had any problem digesting anything. I asked a couple of "can I have this?" type questions and was left with the statement that yogurt was good, pasta was okay, cheese on the pasta should be limited.
I have now been instructed to eat what appeals to me (which includes donuts now!), avoiding fatty foods (not a problem), lots of clear fluids, not too much caffeine (no problem) but then also not too much protein. This last thing I am not sure of - my body has preferred the high protein, low carbs prescribed as the diet of choice when I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia in adolescence. My doc wasn't sure about my vitamins and supplements being continued. This, even though I'd told her everything I was taking back when she noticed my yellowness and she hadn't had anything to say about them then. I'm not keen on stopping them, so they remain part of my regimen.
Seems to me that if my body's not processing food optimally, nutritional support is a good idea. It also seems to me that it very likely is this support that has enabled the fairly quick recovery of liver function. But that's just my opinion.)
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