Eight Days Of Fluoxetine, Three Days Of Herbalife.

As you can probably tell, today is my eighth day of taking Fluoxetine instead of Citalopram. The withdrawal symptoms from taking reduced doses of Citalopram were pretty intense. After getting over the viral infection, I still had to take the Penicillin VK until yesterday morning (horrifying tasting stuff that is...) but I was all better and things so all I had to deal with were the bizarre withdrawal symptoms of the Citalopram and the new side effects of the Fluoxetine.
Now, before I started taking it (the Fluoxetine) I'd managed to pretty much terrify myself by reading various accounts of what people had gone through for the first six weeks of taking the new medication. As far as I could tell, most people were taking it for anxiety rather than depression however, and they hadn't previously been taking an SSRI (Selective Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitor such as Citalopram). Contrary to everything that I read, my first week has gone really smoothly. Even the doctor thought I'd have a hard time adjusting to the new medication but strangely, I've been alright. To be honest, on my first day of Fluoxetine, I did have a breakdown in the bathrooms at work. I think it managed to terrify everyone - they keep asking me how I am and how I'm adjusting to tills and if I'm okay. I just keep telling them that I'm feeling a lot better and that working on checkouts is better for me than the fresh department. Which it is - fresh was lonely and I had far too much time to dwell on things whereas with checkouts I can't do that.
After I got over the virus and the Citalopram withdrawal, I've not really felt anything - I don't feel worse, apart from the occasional bad spat of anxiety, but I don't feel all that better either. I'm forgetting things, spacing out, getting confused easily. I don't really feel happier or anything like that so I'm suspecting that, on Thursday, when I go back to the doctors, he'll increase my dose.

Aside from the new medication, I've also started drinking the Herbalife meal replacement shakes. They're really nice and I think I'm already noticing a difference in my eating after just three days! I'm having two shakes, two teas, two snacks and one nutritious meal per day. It feels kind of like Slimfast but I feel nowhere near as bloated and sluggish as I did after their meal replacements. It's obviously forcing me to eat a lot healthier too - even though I have approximately zero money.
Last night, my main meal was noodle salad with a whole egg. The salad part comprised of half a green pepper, half an onion, half a tiny turnip, a third of a cup of broccoli, half a cup of cos lettuce and some dried chilli salt, half a vegetable OXO cube and pepper for seasoning. It was gorgeous! Less than 300kcals too! (Notice how I've put in my MyFitnessPal page for you! My screen name's Sarah2808 should any of you wish to follow me.)

I'm hoping, once I've been paid on Friday, to get to pole dancing at least twice a week and I'm going to start walking to and from work as of tomorrow and maybe even to and from town when I'm at college and things - saves a hell of a lot of money! Also, now that I've got the spare room under control, I'm wanting to get a little space heater and use it as a yoga/pole dancing room as well. That way, not only will I - hopefully - be losing weight through Herbalife, but I'll be getting leaner and more toned through exercise too.

Well, that said, I'm off to make my morning shake (yes, I realise it's past 2pm but that's beside the point...) 

TTFN!

Flu, Viral Infection or Meningitis - Medical Roulette

After explaining my symptoms to one of the out of doctors, I was told I probably had one of the above three conditions. Their symptom checker, which, yes, I made the mistake of using, told me I'd either had a stroke or had a "serious illness". The first person I spoke to after calling 111 seemed a bit simple - I'm not sure whether she knew what she was doing or whether she thought I wasn't talking sense but she kept asking and re-asking the same questions, explaining the difference between dizzy and light-headed by using roundabout analogies, and managed to come up with about four different versions of my surname after I'd explained it to her and then spelled the whole thing out twice. The actual doctor I spoke to was lovely and really helpful, she went through her questions like a normal person and didn't treat me like an invalid but did manage to give me the "probably flu, a viral infection or maybe meningitis" diagnosis which was a little alarming... She put me on the 'urgent' list for call backs and appointments and a little while later I got a call saying to get to the hospital as soon as I possibly could so, with a friend in tow (at the demand of my other half who was at work), I made my way to A&E. After a pretty reasonable waiting time, I got to see the doctor. She made me do a few rather fun coordination and reaction tests after taking my temperature, blood pressure and pulse. She checked the back of my eyes and made me stand with my arms across my chest and eyes shut - to see if I fell over essentially - and then checked my throat and tonsils before quickly dismissing the notion of meningitis and flu. A viral infection then, and quite a nasty one at that, was deemed most of the cause of my problems. Another contributing factor, she said, is withdrawal from Citalopram. That's likely the cause of my five day migraine. Joy... So I left the hospital with a prescription for some lovely penicillin based antibiotics (which I couldn't get today - damn bank holidays) and the feeling of being reassured that the lining of my brain was not inflamed in any way.

To go back to the Citalopram withdrawal: I meant to write a couple of weeks ago about how the Citalopram was no longer cutting it and the doctor and I had decided it was possibly time for a change. I asked for a few days to think and that, because it's nigh impossible to get an appointment at the surgery, turned into a few weeks. I went back on Tuesday after spending all of Monday in a semi-catatonic state and he decided that I should move onto Fluoxetine within the week. My instructions for the transition were to go to half dose for three days (yesterday was day two, I nearly killed myself, I instead spent about half an hour self-harming) and then to drop to quarter dose for three days. After that, I can start taking 20mg of Fluoxetine a day. Apparently it's a rough starter and that can last anywhere from two to six weeks and since I already had a rocky beginning with Citalopram, I'm not looking forward to it so much... I dunno, maybe it'll be alright - it can't get tooooo much worse I suppose.

Other than that, things are going alright, I moved departments at work so I'm even happier there now than I was before. College is going alright but I missed my latest deadline due to sickness (read Citalopram withdrawal and viral infection) so I'll lose out on marks for that unfortunately. On the plus side, we've broke for Easter now so I've got a fortnight to improve my essay and work on my image. I've gone back to pole dancing and I'm getting back into the swing of it all so to speak.
I'm going to start setting proper times and dates to blog and I'm going to start writing and drawing again. And, now that the weather's getting better, I'm going to start running again. I think it'll all help with the depression lark and stuff.

Anyway, I'm going to get some more rest. Night all!