Once upon a time I only had to remember to take my levoxyl first thing in the morning. Early enough so I could wait an hour before breakfast. Levoxyl is a synthetic thyroid hormone that keeps my metabolic rate high enough so I do not simply become slug like. If I eat breakfast too soon it can be absorbed by the food and pass through my system without doing me any good.
Occasionally I read about the relationship between such drugs and insulin resistance and after much dieting and exercise I started taking metformin with meals for my type two diabetes. I recently added glimepiride because my blood sugars went ballistic while I was on prednisone during R-CHOP therapy for my lymphoma.
I feel like one of those jugglers who starts tossing one thing in the air and then adds another and another and another.
Back when I was a young lad in middle age my doctor put me on an aspirin regimen. I fell off the wagon several years later after emergency surgery when I had a conversation with the surgeon and he said that I had bled a good deal during the operation.
Well revlimid has some potentially fatal side effects related to blood clots and so I am back taking at least one aspirin a day to ward them off.
It goes without saying that to continue to participate in the clinical trial I must take the revlimid; at least in the three weeks in each cycle that I am scheduled to.
Which brings me to the last of what I think are the required drugs the Acyclovir which I take three times a day for what appears to be a viral infection which causes a rash and some pain on the surface of my skin.
To deal with my sinus problems (which are many) I have a bottle of flonase which I squirt (2 times) up my nose each evening. I also take a 24 hour antihistamine and a singulair tablet.
At my age I am naturally constipated but especially so on the revlimid so I take an "as needed" dose of magnesium and fiber capsules. Obviously (to me) I haven't been taking enough of these because I am still constipated.
The magnesium may also help with healing a compression fracture that I have at my L-4 vertebra.
Because of the pain on or in my side (sometimes I can't tell which) that feels much like a bad sunburn, I take a serious pain pill at night shortly before I go to bed. Since it has such an impact on my ability to think I only take it to help me sleep (so I don't roll over on my side and suddenly wake up in pain).
If I have stomach upset from the revlimid (the heartburn from the R-CHOP is going away) I have some tums and zantac.
These are the drugs I am taking now, I have stopped taking the muscle relaxants (Skelaxin and Soma) that I had to take to stop the spasms in my neck muscles; the 4 Aleve each day for the headache caused by the tumor pushing up against my neck muscles. And the various pain medicines I took to control the pain after surgery on my throat to biopsy my tumor.
Speaking of drugs I have not had any alcoholic beverage since two glasses of wine on Thanksgiving last year when Mary and I went out to lunch at the Irregardless Cafe in Raleigh.
Life might be difficult at times, but at least it's well medicated.
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