Biaxin; regimen

[cjsmith]

Yes Biaxin causes stomach upset. Yay.
Yes Biaxin causes (or exacerbates) insomnia. Sleep aids, coming right up.

Regimen, for those who like to point and laugh:
Morning - 5 pills vitamin D3, 1 injection vitamin B12 (also inject kitty with insulin)
8am - 500mg Biaxin, with food
2pm (as far from the Biaxin as possible) - probiotic
8pm - 500mg Biaxin, with food (also give kitty insulin and 1/2 tablet Enalapril for blood pressure)
8pm 1x/week - fluconazole
Bedtime - hormones, sleeping pill

There's no way to keep this organized without little pill minders, so I'm carrying those again. I'm really not supposed to be this old yet. I was supposed to get a decade or two of middle age.

Comments

[evilegg.livejournal.com]

Don't take this wrong, but this is the craziest shit I have ever seen.
I hope this is your answer.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is insane. I hope I don't have to live like this for too long, but of course all indications sort of point to years.

Don't get me started on the yeast control diet. It's stricter on the no-sugars thing than either Atkins or South Beach ever was. Today I had peanuts for breakfast. I could lose a lot of weight doing this, just because there's nothing to eat.

Don't say I never shared.

[evilegg.livejournal.com]

I was on antibiotics for forty-two days. I had bad e-coli in muh kidneys, and some other bacterial infection as well.
It was hell on the entire fish mitten.
My best friend became chapstick. On the labia. Yes. Chapstick.
Seriously.
It's all that saved my sanity.
Good luck.

Re: Don't say I never shared.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh yikes. Yet another thing this has in common with chemo. Fortunately I have a lot of chapstick... I could even desigate some chapsticks "head" and others "tail"!

Re: Don't say I never shared.

[evilegg.livejournal.com]

That's what I did, sort of.
I peeled the labels off all the ones I used on my tweeter.

Re: Don't say I never shared.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Good idea. Simple and effective.

[sebab.livejournal.com]

Dunno if it would help, but I have and love the Medcenter system (it's on Amazon, among other places)

Only 4 compartments a day, but you could stick 8am and 8pm into the same compartment.

Now I just lay out my pills a month in advance and no longer worry about leaving the house, or dropping pills when transferring to a "travel" container, or having to fiddle with them every single day or even every week. (I take more than you and I think I'm younger, heh)

I also have a bag that fits a single day's compartment pretty nicely in one of its compartments -- the Imago from tombihn.com -- but that may *really* be overkill :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! A month in advance is kind of cool, although I'd go crazy trying to time my refills so I could fill the whole month at a go. What I've got now is the poor man's version: a series of little four-compartment pill minders that I can fill a few days ahead. I put morning and 8am in the same slot; they can really go together. What the Medcenter system might help with (?) that I don't currently manage in one central place is injections. That stuff has to stay in the fridge, though.

I'm sure you are younger than me, yeah, and I am amazed at what you've been through. :-(

[rampling.livejournal.com]

I use a little mini pill reminder/organizer system to help me remember my pills: Timex Daily Medication Manager (http://www.amazon.com/Timex-80041-Daily-Medication-Manager/dp/B000FNJO8Q/ref=pd_sim_dbs_hpc_img_3). I call the voice "The Pill Lady", and thank her for her reminders when she says "Take Pillbox 2!". My sister said "Doesn't that voice get annoying?", and I said "Not really, what's really annoying is the forgetting.". Whee. ;)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

"Not really, what's really annoying is the forgetting."

Yes indeedy. I find I'm pretty good at remembering to do things if I concentrate and focus. (When we go to Great Britain, I drive.) The challenge right now is to focus, unfailingly, for long enough that habit begins to kick in and help.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

I also find it very helpful that The Pill Lady has a voice and talks about pills. That way when I'm not awake I can tell the difference between a wake-up alarm and a pill alarm. The simplicity of The Pill Lady telling me what pills to take is a great help when my brain is rather determinedly asleep.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ah, nice. It hadn't occurred to me that sleep schedule would make a big difference to pill schedule. My sleep is fairly regular (well, when I'm getting some, *snort*) so that's one less hurdle in the path of doing something at 8 twice a day without fail.

If you don't mind my asking, what's your med regimen? I don't recall you talking about it in LJ, although I might have just missed it.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

It's relatively simple now, just a bit fussy.

Morning: Levoxyl 75mcg & Low-Ogestrel ("birth control", skipping placebo pills)
Evening: Ranitidine 300mg (stomach stuff, can interfere with Levoxyl, *sigh*)

I take my morning pills between 7:30 & 9:30 AM (and set The Pill Lady for 9:25 AM). The evening pill is less fussy, but I try for 7:30-9:30 PM (with The Pill Lady at 9:25 PM in case I forget). It's tough for me, because I have lotsa trouble with insomnia (I seem to have a greater-than-24-hour circadian rhythm), so I often end up with an erratic sleep schedule. I've learned to roll over when I hear The Pill Lady, take the two li'l pills, and roll over back to sleep. When I've been dead asleep it's very easy for me to get back to sleep[*] after simple quick pill-taking. The Pill Lady lives in my bedroom, since the evening pill is not so strict, and I'm generally at home for the morning pills.

And the 7:30-9:30 windows are my feeding times for mira_kitty. She gets food supplements with her morning wet food (lite, cans or wet packets) -- Dasuquin powder (a glucosamine/chondroitin plus misc supplement) and a squirt of Welactin (an omega-3 supplement. These supplements are supposed to help her with her hip dysplasia, and they seem to work Really, Really Well!!! :D Evening is easy, she gets lite dry food, carefully measured. She's a serious overeater, including a social eater (will grab a bite if she can any time I visit the kitchen) so I've had to stop free feeding.

[*] I have what I call "sleep inertia" -- "a body at rest..." -- you get the drift. It sounds like a joke, but it's also the literal truth, which I've lived with all my life.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I skip placebos too, which is one of the best things that's happened to me in my entire life. (Seriously, I can count on one hand the things that have been that good to me: graduating from MIT, Rob, and getting my abdominal pain under control.)

That's cool that you can get back to sleep afterward. I have sleep-maintenance insomnia -- I can GET to sleep, but if I wake up any time after four or so hours of it, I usually can't RETURN to sleep no matter how tired I feel -- so that'd be tougher for me. But hey, we each have ways that work for us! :-)

I'm also glad to hear how well the supplements are working for Mira. That's awesome.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Yeah skipping placebos is way up there in big life pluses! Makes me feel whole and human and not "down for periodic maintenance" (and ridiculous pointless misery) way too often.

And it *is* really quite tough to properly manage regular pills in my irregular life. But, with the help of The Pill Lady, I mostly manage. Not always easy.

I have sleep initiation problems (and waking problems), you have sleep maintenance problems. We each get dealt our challenges. Such fun... or something. ;)

It makes me extremely happy that the supplements are working well for mira_kitty!!! I rejoice every single time I see her walk into the bedroom and leap up onto my bed directly instead of choosing to use her kitty stairs on the other side of the bed. She used to use them *all the time* to get onto my bed, then she'd occasionally leap directly, but now she leaps directly almost *all the time*!! Though she usually uses the stairs to get down from the bed. But, wow!!, what a wonderful improvement and state of happy-mostly-healthy-catness!!! You can make a note for your future vet practice that this stuff can be *amazing* for kitty arthritis.

BTW, my sporadic LJ-visiting means I missed commenting 'bout Duchess' situation. I'm so sorry to hear she's going through such a difficult and scary time. I worry (but really try to not obsess) about when Mira will face big health issues (again). It's part of why I celebrate every single time I see her leaping or doing happy-cat things. I'm glad you said that Duchess didn't seem personally miserable outside the seizure episodes. At least that is a comfort. I wish both of you the best luck with dealing with it, and offer *HUGS* and *kitty-purrrrrrrs*.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

"Ridiculous pointless misery" is exactly the right way to put it. Ugh.

Yeah, I think Duchess probably feels just fine most of the time (although confused and disoriented when this hits) and me, I'm the worrier. Thanks! Hugs and kitty-purrs make a lot of things better.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Hugs and kitty-purrs (and maybe some cheese) could save the world if we could just figure out the distribution problem!

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

*excited, slightly nervous puppy wriggle*
I hope hope hope this works.
*excited, slightly nervous puppy wriggle*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks!! :-) :-)

[allanh.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. I had to create a two page document to hand out to medical personnel detailing what I take, when I take it, who prescribed it, and why. Plus contact info for all of my medical providers.

This is another one of those "managing chronic illness is a full time job" things.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It's a mess, isn't it? How many more weeks for you? It's going to be quite a change when the Riba stops!

[allanh.livejournal.com]

Friday night, May 30th, is my last shot of Pegasys and dose of Ribavirin. :) I figure it'll take me about a week to feel better enough to celebrate.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

WOOHOO! YAY! Of course, the whole concept of ramping up your activities and involvement gradually will be a fun one.

[allanh.livejournal.com]

What does this strange term mean, "gradually"?

[allanh.livejournal.com]

Oooh! I just realized...I have a half doze pill organizers I'm not using (they're too small now). Would you like them?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I have a handful, and probably don't need different kinds, but if you've got four-compartment ones (meant for a single day - like this perhaps) they'd fit well in my system and I'd be glad to take them off your hands.

[allanh.livejournal.com]

Nope; they're all 7-day organizers; one compartment for each day. Sorry!

[kimatha.livejournal.com]

I love that you include kitty's med schedule with yours. That is how it should be. :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Hee! :-) I'm the one that does 'em both, so why not? :-)

[rampling.livejournal.com]

I time my twice-daily med taking to my twice-daily kitty feeding times. So much easier that way -- I'm not allowed to forget either, so I consolidate. =^..^=

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. The kitty meds go with kitty food - and I can't free-feed now that the kitties are on separate, different prescription diets. Ha! The only non-geriatric thing in the house is Rob!

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

The only non-geriatric thing in the house is Rob!

That's all right, he'll catch up with the rest of you soon enough.

[set black_humor="off"]

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Well, you know what they say about old age: it's better than the alternative!

[apparentparadox]

I guess I'm confused about the separation between "Morning" and "8am".

I'm not sure those two are far enough apart to be separable!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

They often are, in my case, but fortunately they don't have to be. A four-compartment pill minder (mixing morning and 8am) works just fine. :-)

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not supposed to be this old, either. =( And I think I'm younger than you, too.

Between 1996-2005 I took only ONE pill daily, for my thyroid. Before that, I took no daily pills.

2005-2006 I began taking 3 sets of pills daily: one once for my thyroid, one once for asthma, and one 2x/day for high blood pressure.

Since 2006, I have been taking the 3 sets of pills listed above, plus an additional morning pill for my thyroid, plus 2 antibiotics twice a day, plus probiotics and Prevacid, a stomach acid reducer.

Whee.

Not.

It is what it is. If this is what I have to do to keep going, well, I do it.

If my quality of life is less without these drugs, then I don't see that I have much choice.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

If my quality of life is less without these drugs, then I don't see that I have much choice.

Amen. That's basically it. If I have to take this pile of pills and one injection per day, then I'll do it. It's better than the alternative. I do envy healthy people though. Envy is not a pretty trait, but there it is. :-(

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a lot of pills to keep track of. I'd suggest tying a string around your finger so you don't forget, but that's an awful lot of bondage that you may not be into. ;)

Seriously, that's a lot. But once you get settled into a system it won't be so bad. And as long as it helps, it will all be worth it.

And if there is anything I can do to help, let me know. I will try to comment more, those are about as natural a sleep aid as you will find. :) But I probably can't do much for the upset stomach. ;)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks. You're absolutely right that once I get into the swing of it, it won't be so bad. Same with the dietary restrictions, I imagine. Wheee. :-)

[ericainohio.livejournal.com]

Man, CJ, I hope this turns out to be The Answer for you. I know this regimen has got to be hellish - and then to be doing yeast elimination diet on top of that? Yikes. I have to essentially follow the yeast elimination thing too, as it is very close to what I have to eat to maintain my gestational diabetes. Sometimes, it really sucks. I'm sorry.

I was glad to see that Cyd pointed you in the direction of the Healing Naturally By Bee website. At least on that site, there are some practical suggestions for foods that you *can* eat.

Do keep us updated. I know many of us out here are rooting for you and hoping for the best possible result out of all this. HANG IN THERE!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yeah, it's a heck of a diet, isn't it? I went to the grocery store last night and picked up a lot of meat, cheese, and vegetables. We'll see what I can make of them without, oh, SAUCES.

I didn't get very far in the Bee website because of its "Western medicine is an evil conspiracy" flavor. Western medicine isn't perfect, but that kind of thing ticks me off. I'll go back and see if I can get to the food suggestions.

Thanks!! :-)