Bad Medicine!

            For legal and ethical reasons, I don’t feel I can name the medications I’ve been on, for a few of them I would never endorse to a single soul. Let’s just say the one that worked the best (we’ll call it M for shorthand, and it stands for Medication), had the worst side effects a person could imagine for me. Even starving myself and doing TaeKwonDo several times a week as exercise, I continued to gain until little, 5’2” me weighed 226 lbs. I could barely breathe, or climb stairs. I certainly couldn’t run. My father has Type II Diabetes (adult onset at that), and I was deathly afraid I was going to die from M. I begged and begged to get off of it, and finally the doctors acquiesced. Within just a few months, I lost over half of the weight I had gained on M. That is not to say that I weigh less than 113 lbs! Far from it, but half of the weight I had gained while on M is gone. I can breathe, I can run, and I can turn over in my sleep comfortably. I can shop in normal clothing stores. I am a person again. But I have been left with some crippling, long-term side effects, such as an anxiety disorder that began with M and some others.

I guess the lesson here is to say quite loudly that if you feel your medication is not working for you, and the side effects outweigh the benefits (pun intended), talk to your doctor about alternatives. Remember, doctors are there to help you, and it is your life. In my humble opinion the docs work for me, not the other way around. Stand up and be heard! Your voice is valuable.