My New Experiment

I've started a new "experiment" vis-a-vis my medical care.

Ever since my doctor put me on blood pressure meds, my leg cramps have increased to a stupid level, becoming so intense that the pain is interfering with every aspect of my life, 24/7, and I don't like it.

So, after consulting with my pharmacist and confirming that there is no harm in stopping the med cold-turkey, I decided to stop taking it for a while to see if the cramping returns to its previous annoying level (they never really go away altogether).

Sunday was my first day not taking the blood pressure med that I had started taking some five weeks ago.

My pharmacist told me it might take a few days before I could safely tell whether or not its removal was making a difference and he cautioned me to monitor my blood pressure closely (which I certainly intend to do).

Thus far, my blood pressure has not risen, so that's a good thing.

But the leg cramps have not lessened yet either.

I know, it's still early going -- this is only the second day without the drug.

Obviously, there isn't going to be an immediate response (although it did have an immediate effect when it exacerbated the leg cramps).

But I like immediate results.

After all, the damned drug increased the leg cramps immediately that I started taking it.

So why doesn't it decrease the leg cramps immediately that I stop taking it?

Would that things worked so logically in the real world.

As to the matter of my blood pressure, that was never an issue until I went through the withdrawal episode from Cesamet.  Reportedly, the effects of that nightmare should be completely out of my system by mid-June.

Perhaps I don't need anything to control my blood pressure and this experiment might prove that to be true.

In any case, by conducting this experiment, I'll have irrefutable data to show my doctor when I see him in late June and we can decide then whether or not I even need to stay on the med.  If I don't need it, my leg cramps will return to their "annoying" level.

I've also been taking my sleep aid every night for the past week (I simply could not continue in the sleep deprived state that was evident).

And while I'm still waking all too frequently during the night, I have to admit that I am better rested than I've been in a very long time. Obviously, the sleep aid does help me get a better quality sleep when I do sleep, even though I still wake every couple of hours to change position because of my hip discomfort.

So it would seem that the pain management specialist just might have known of what she spoke:  I do need to take something every night.  That's just a stark reality of being a fibromyalgic.

I will revisit the issue with my doctor at my June visit, because there might be a better drug to use than the one I'm currently taking.  After all, if I have to take something, I may as well take the most efficient one for the job.