Tumblr!
Yes, I've taken another step into the 21st century; I now have a Tumblr account... I've just posted an introductory post, reblogged some funny stuff, and posted some of my fave pics. I'm not sure exactly what else to do with it. It's a mini-blogging service, right? Does that mean that when I'm too tired to write a full post here, I can write a mini one there? ... I might just do that! Um, anyway, this is me on Tumblr: http://thecabbagestalk.tumblr.com/ I figured I should try it out, as a lot of people on Facebook and on Twitter have it. I like it so far, especially the background I chose for my Tumblr. =D
Side effects...
Because my specialist put me on a dose that was so high it's classified as Naltrexone, not Low Dose Naltrexone, I got one of the worst side effects possible: lethargy/fatigue/exhaustion. So that's why I've been feeling more zombie-like than usual this past week! I also had a lot of nausea and dizziness/lightheadedness. Now that I'm down to about 6mg, I should have milder nausea and less dizziness/lightheadedness. Although the nausea was shocking yesterday when I got up for tutoring; I couldn't sit up or even drink. Thankfully I had some Ondansetron!
Maths:
The next two weeks are assigned to a two week project SAC, designed to be completed in about 7.5hrs max. After that, I have a 60 minute SAC, then I start Unit 4, which begins with antidifferentiation. I had a bit of trouble with that in Year 11, although it was quite rushed when we studied it. Hopefully I'll do better this time around! I have maths tutoring today and we're going to revise the topics my teacher said would be covered in the SAC. That way I'll be fully prepared. (I hope; Mum had a look [she's my supervisor] and said it looked really long.) The next SAC (the 60 minute one) is on calculus/differentiation and circular functions, so I definitely need to revise circular functions before that week begins. I got a Very High on my last SAC, which is an A/A+, I really hope I can maintain that for my school work and SACs.
Exams are my main worry; I get panic attacks about them, and get exam "panic" - my mind can go blank from fear. It happened twice in two Year 11 maths tests. Plus it's quite scary being in a room with just the examiner watching you. And this time it won't be a teacher from my school. =( There's a morning exam, so I don't know how well I'll do on that one, as I can't function until midday, at least. The other one starts just before midday, I think, so that should be okay. I've applied to sit them at home, so that way I can lie down during my rest breaks. I hope I get a good mark; my teacher thinks I will definitely pass, which is brilliant! She actually thought I'd been a student who excelled at maths my whole life! =o
Sleep...
I slept a bit better the other night, and I seem to be able to get to sleep by 1.30am at the moment, but I wake quite regularly. Today I went to bed at midnight, fell asleep at around 1am, woke at about 2am, then 4.50am, and I'm still awake. I tried to get back to sleep, but couldn't, so I figured I'd write a blog post. I can go to school on 3 hours sleep, it's just trying to get 3 hours of unbroken sleep. I'm really worried about my sleeping pattern because I start orientation in Nov/Dec, and I need to be able to get up at 6.30am, or 6.50am at the latest. Which means I need some solid sleep, and to be able to sleep from about midnight. I know someone my age needs 9-10 hours of sleep per night, and I need more than that because of my Idiopathic Hypersomnolence, but, realistically, I haven't slept like that since I was about 10. If one thing gets sorted out this year, or changes for the better, I want it to be my sleep. (Or "sleep pattern")
I guess that's it.
Thanks for all your comments, I really appreciate every one of them, and respond to them as soon as I can; lately I'm not able to use my laptop much at all. I'll try to sleep now, seeing as it's after 6am. If you've got any tips on how to use Tumblr, how to cope with lack of sleep/side effects/illness or exam anxiety, I'd love to hear them! =) Thanks for reading!
Showing posts with label LDN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LDN. Show all posts
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Good news!
First of all, the good (medical) news:
My specialist agreed to prescribe LDN for me. (That's Low Dose Naltrexone, if you didn't know. ^.^) She said to take a quarter of a tablet, but didn't specify when or how to take it, or whether I can or should increase the doseage if needed. Each tablet is 50mg, so a quarter (it's hard to make it exact, even with a pill cutter) is about 12.5mg. So that's what I'm taking each night.
I'm going to see my GP, ask what the highest dose is, how I should go off it (if I need to) and how long it needs before it starts working. My specialist had never prescribed LDN before, probably because her patients trust her and don't do their own research!!
I've been on it since the 12/05/10, and it does seem to make headaches less severe and Panadol work better for them, but that could just be a placebo effect, or my mind making it think it's doing that. Because I studied for 5.5hrs today, I had a lot of back pain. It wasn't as bad as last week; I was incapacitated then, and totally bedbound, unable to move for about 4hrs. This week, it was still awful pain, but I could manage to do a few things before lying down with a heatpack for 1.5hrs and then having a hot shower.
Heat seems to really help my pain. It didn't help my rheumatism. I had a bad attack of it the other night, so I was lying down, mum was bringing heatpacks and I had my electric blanket on full. But mum's arthritis was playing up, too (our pain always seems to coincide) so we both want a definitive test to rule out all types of arthritis. But no side effects so far from LDN, because I was getting headaches before it, I think that it's just normal ME headaches.
I can only take Panadol or Nurofen while on LDN, anything with codeine will cause a reaction similar to an opiod overdose. My specialist doesn't know what it'd look like, so mum took all meds with codeine out of my room. My memory is so bad; I thought Mersyndol didn't have codeine!!
The good (academic) news:
I got my SAC in the mail last week, and I got a "Very High", which means my mark is in the 80% - 100% range. I think I got an A+, but after I saw that I got higher than a B, I was so happy I couldn't be bothered calculating my result as a percentage. So that's brilliant, because it counts for my work from Weeks 4-7! I'm really happy, but worried about my next SAC. It sounds rather complex.
Fail!!! (Or "brain fog" in the ME world)
I thought my SAC was this week, and that's why the Distance Education people had posted the SAC to my mum (my supervisor) last week. I got my weeks confused. This week is Week 13, which is more calculus/differentiation, but Weeks 14 and 15 are the SAC. It's a project on calculus/differentiation, and it's supposed to take no more than 7hrs in total. Or something like that. The week after that (Week 16) I have another SAC, which is a test-format SAC on, I guess, calculus/differentiation. Then I think it's holidays. So I'll be really busy for the next few weeks!! Although, I've already completed this week's required homework, and my teacher is visiting on Tuesday, so I can show her what I'm having trouble with, and we can work out what amendments to the requirements would be best for me.
Birthday presents:
I was finally able to go out a week or so ago and buy a new pair of tracksuit pants (one I bought in January stretched strangely, so now they're too long to wear. The fabric was waaaay too stretchy!! (On the old pair!) I still need to get this new pair taken up at the tailor's. I also bought new winter pyjamas, and a hoodie that matches them. Plus slippers. I figured I may as well get really comfortable pyjamas, seeing as I spend so much time in them! I got one blue pair (paisely blue/aqua with a royal blue top) and a purple pair (white/purple striped pants with a purple top.) I still want to buy a dressing gown, though. One of those warm ones. I haven't found one yet, but I'll keep looking! I used my gift card and some of the money I got for my birthday. There was a huge special on at that particular store, which was great! I may even get a second hoodie from there; quite cheap, very comfortable and warm.
Sleep:
My sleep is all over the place. Most nights I'm up until 6am, or until I get a headache, nausea and dizziness, (from lack of sleep) so that I have to lie down with my eyes closed, and not move. Last night, though, I went to bed at 11.25pm, woke at 3.30am, and a few times in between. I've been up since. It's about 5.10am now, so I'm going to try and sleep. I can never catch up on sleep, because in the mornings (7.30am - 9am) there's "getting ready for school noise" and in the afternoons/evenings there's "arriving home/playing PS2, etc/getting dinner ready noise" So I really need to get my sleep sorted. I have no idea how to, though. Any ideas? (Apart from anything sleep hygeine related; that's what got my sleep into this freaky pattern in the first place!)
Thanks so much for reading. Any comments, feedback, or tips would be greatly appreciated! Take care.
My specialist agreed to prescribe LDN for me. (That's Low Dose Naltrexone, if you didn't know. ^.^) She said to take a quarter of a tablet, but didn't specify when or how to take it, or whether I can or should increase the doseage if needed. Each tablet is 50mg, so a quarter (it's hard to make it exact, even with a pill cutter) is about 12.5mg. So that's what I'm taking each night.
I'm going to see my GP, ask what the highest dose is, how I should go off it (if I need to) and how long it needs before it starts working. My specialist had never prescribed LDN before, probably because her patients trust her and don't do their own research!!
I've been on it since the 12/05/10, and it does seem to make headaches less severe and Panadol work better for them, but that could just be a placebo effect, or my mind making it think it's doing that. Because I studied for 5.5hrs today, I had a lot of back pain. It wasn't as bad as last week; I was incapacitated then, and totally bedbound, unable to move for about 4hrs. This week, it was still awful pain, but I could manage to do a few things before lying down with a heatpack for 1.5hrs and then having a hot shower.
Heat seems to really help my pain. It didn't help my rheumatism. I had a bad attack of it the other night, so I was lying down, mum was bringing heatpacks and I had my electric blanket on full. But mum's arthritis was playing up, too (our pain always seems to coincide) so we both want a definitive test to rule out all types of arthritis. But no side effects so far from LDN, because I was getting headaches before it, I think that it's just normal ME headaches.
I can only take Panadol or Nurofen while on LDN, anything with codeine will cause a reaction similar to an opiod overdose. My specialist doesn't know what it'd look like, so mum took all meds with codeine out of my room. My memory is so bad; I thought Mersyndol didn't have codeine!!
The good (academic) news:
I got my SAC in the mail last week, and I got a "Very High", which means my mark is in the 80% - 100% range. I think I got an A+, but after I saw that I got higher than a B, I was so happy I couldn't be bothered calculating my result as a percentage. So that's brilliant, because it counts for my work from Weeks 4-7! I'm really happy, but worried about my next SAC. It sounds rather complex.
Fail!!! (Or "brain fog" in the ME world)
I thought my SAC was this week, and that's why the Distance Education people had posted the SAC to my mum (my supervisor) last week. I got my weeks confused. This week is Week 13, which is more calculus/differentiation, but Weeks 14 and 15 are the SAC. It's a project on calculus/differentiation, and it's supposed to take no more than 7hrs in total. Or something like that. The week after that (Week 16) I have another SAC, which is a test-format SAC on, I guess, calculus/differentiation. Then I think it's holidays. So I'll be really busy for the next few weeks!! Although, I've already completed this week's required homework, and my teacher is visiting on Tuesday, so I can show her what I'm having trouble with, and we can work out what amendments to the requirements would be best for me.
Birthday presents:
I was finally able to go out a week or so ago and buy a new pair of tracksuit pants (one I bought in January stretched strangely, so now they're too long to wear. The fabric was waaaay too stretchy!! (On the old pair!) I still need to get this new pair taken up at the tailor's. I also bought new winter pyjamas, and a hoodie that matches them. Plus slippers. I figured I may as well get really comfortable pyjamas, seeing as I spend so much time in them! I got one blue pair (paisely blue/aqua with a royal blue top) and a purple pair (white/purple striped pants with a purple top.) I still want to buy a dressing gown, though. One of those warm ones. I haven't found one yet, but I'll keep looking! I used my gift card and some of the money I got for my birthday. There was a huge special on at that particular store, which was great! I may even get a second hoodie from there; quite cheap, very comfortable and warm.
Sleep:
My sleep is all over the place. Most nights I'm up until 6am, or until I get a headache, nausea and dizziness, (from lack of sleep) so that I have to lie down with my eyes closed, and not move. Last night, though, I went to bed at 11.25pm, woke at 3.30am, and a few times in between. I've been up since. It's about 5.10am now, so I'm going to try and sleep. I can never catch up on sleep, because in the mornings (7.30am - 9am) there's "getting ready for school noise" and in the afternoons/evenings there's "arriving home/playing PS2, etc/getting dinner ready noise" So I really need to get my sleep sorted. I have no idea how to, though. Any ideas? (Apart from anything sleep hygeine related; that's what got my sleep into this freaky pattern in the first place!)
Thanks so much for reading. Any comments, feedback, or tips would be greatly appreciated! Take care.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)