INDECISION

Well, I didn’t take the new medication. I decided to call the pharmacist and ask the likelihood of having side effects from the medicine. The pharmacist said that I was very likely to have some side effects but not to get discouraged. If the side effects get intolerable then I should call the neurologist.

Well, that wasn’t very comforting and so I decided to call my family practitioner who referred me to the neurologist. I left a message that the neurologist wants me to stop taking the medicines he (family doctor) gave me and to use this new medicine instead. I said that I read the side effects and I’m very concerned about them. I asked what they advised. I sat by the phone for four hours on Thursday waiting for a return call. Nothing. As I write this Friday afternoon I wonder if my doctor’s office will call. The practice management of so many of these doctors leaves a lot to be desired.

Meanwhile, I stopped taking the pain medication prescribed by my family doctor as the neurologist advised, in preparation of taking the new medicine. I’ve gotten the unfortunate opportunity to realize just how much that medication was helping. Right now I’m going without anything and feeling rather vulnerable to the level of arm pain I once knew. I dealt with it then and I can deal with it again but I’m likely to have to make a decision fairly soon as to what I’m going to do. It’s already making my days and nights very long.

When a person takes a medication, many of the listed side effects rarely occur. However, the literature for this new medicine indicates that there is a high incidence of side effects, which was confirmed by the pharmacist. As I mentioned previously, I’m not interested in a cure that is worse than the disease. In this case, I don’t think I’m interested in all of those side effects that I’m supposed to endure for a projected 20% reduction in pain. It’s a dusty road that people go down with side effects and all kinds of medications then added to fight the side effects. I don’t want to start down that path just because an arm problem that I’ve already been dealing with for over twenty years.