Remind me not to do that again


Last Friday, I went to the doctor for a few minor complaints: tinnitus and a painfully spastic trapezius muscle. I got drugs! Cetirizine to shut down those spring allergies that might be worsening the tinnitus, and cyclobenzaprine for the muscle pains. Like a good boy, I took them exactly as prescribed over the weekend.

I don’t know whether I’m just peculiarly sensitive to them, or whether there was some major synergy between the two, but that was a totally lost weekend. Both say “may cause drowsiness”…I was constantly fading out and falling asleep, and I got little done. The cyclobenzaprine warns of “dry mouth”, and I was totally parched, dry mouth, dry adenoids, dry throat, dry vocal cords. I creaked when I talked. So I stopped on Sunday, figuring that hearing cicadas everywhere I go and having my chest spasm every time I coughed or laughed was less of a bother than the drugs.

Unfortunately, it’s taking a while for them to clear from the system. Here it is Wednesday and I’ve still got dry mouth (although it’s easing) and my eyes are still a bit blurry, and I’ll probably have to take a nap later today. At least I know these drugs are potent, they’re maybe just a tad too much for what ails me. I’ll keep ’em around in case I feel the urge to have the most boring party in the universe.

Comments

  1. Kevin Dugan says

    Cyclobenzaprine does the same to me, at least for the first week. Really relaxed, but groggy. Doc put me on Metaxalone 800mg. Not quite as relaxing, but much less groggy.

  2. bodach says

    Going to the Dr. once hardly ever works.
    Go back and complain (explain) and see what they can come up with that will work better for you.

  3. sirsamvimes says

    Ahhh, how I remember the joy of being told of a new, wonder hay fever medication that wouldn’t cause drowsiness (every product on the market then caused me to go bye-byes quite quickly).
    It being the height of hay fever season I obtained it, took it and found that my workmates had found me, driven me home and left me to sleep for 18 hours…
    I have yet to find anything that doesn’t cause near coma.

  4. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    I tried this and seemed to help:
    Lipoflavinoids For Tinnitus | Simple Tip “Ends” Ear Ringing‎
    https://health-buzz.net/tinnitus/solution_921cl.html
    – I bet I’m being redundant, as I’m sure you’ve already tried this.
    This is my suggestion for those reading this, as your first attempt to relieve the noise in the ear.

  5. Jazzlet says

    slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem))
    That article ticks so many quack boxes. Why not just tell us what it is that you think helped you rather than trying to make us click to a page that is desperate to get us to click through to a video that will tell us all?

  6. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    re 5:
    That was the first that popped up when I did a google to check my spelling. Didn’t read it, apologies.
    All I can say is that I got a bottle of Lipoflavinoids at Walgreens Rx , no recollection of brand. Consumed the bottle, following its directions, and my tinnitus has not bothered my since. Occasionally, faint ringing still occurs, being much fainter than before.
    That’s all

  7. Jazzlet says

    slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) @#6
    Read it and you’ll see what I mean! But thanks for the explanation of what helped you.

  8. magistramarla says

    I feel ya, PZ, I take cyclobenzaprine and gabapentin at night for the muscle spasms caused by spastic paraplegia. Even with taking them, I still wake at night with my legs cramping. I can’t take any of it during the day, or I couldn’t function at all.
    Oh, and the Ditropan for the neurogenic spastic bladder causes dryness, too.
    I also have Sjogren’s syndrome, which causes dryness everywhere in my body. I have to weigh relief from the spasms against dealing with being so dry I can barely see or talk.
    What I have won’t kill me – it just makes life miserable until something else kills me!

  9. ridana says

    Side effects are never fun. When I was on antidepressants, not only did I have the killer cottonmouth, but I also got this weird intermittent flushing of my cheek and earlobe – but only on one side (not always the same side). Like my right cheek and earlobe would blaze up bright red and felt like you could fry an egg on my skin, while the left side was perfectly normal. Some people wondered if I’d been smacked upside the face or something.

  10. wzrd1 says

    Muscle pains, another day, whatever.
    Tinnitus, of late massively increasing in volume, for no good frigging reason, even new dual tones in one ear and pressure felt in said ear, with no fluid, no sign of inflammation.

    Still have massive lumbar pain, due to a failed disk, but also fear opioid prescription. I get a massive histamine release with pretty much any opioid or opiate.
    So, pain relief meets, hand in hand, with choking sensation, massive post-nasal drip and narrowing of the airways.
    And for the record, the next motherfucker that tells me that pain builds character will end up sterile.
    I’m also of an odd phenotype, pain triggers adrenaline, mimic the mythical Hulk, save growing mass and size, just strength, due to a loss of sensation of pain, plus adrenaline.
    Something I actually fear, due to the results.
    Hence, a fear of treatment for pain and non-treatment for pain.
    I’ve actually thrown someone who weighed 80 pounds more than I, well over two meters, into equipment that was fatally damaged.
    The man thrown, thankfully, survived with treatment for some months.

    Most of the time, none would notice me, save for being jovial and using a cane.
    Which is my preferred state.
    But, at times, some insist and well, Hulk may smash, but Bulk crushes. :P:p:P:p:P:p
    Pull Bulk finger!
    Of course nothing happens, note the disc thing and well, … :/

    Seriously, my reality is in the middle of the cartoonish joke. I am in 24/7 pain, due to a disk issue, I am also infamous for throwing a human well taller and weighty than myself across a room, when injured.
    My preference is essentially PZ’s, peace and frigging quiet.
    Alas, PZ would likely enjoy music more than I. I used to have perfect pitch tuning, now, can’t hear most tones and stopped playing accordion, organ, piano and mandolin.
    But, due to one natural lens in the eye being removed, I do get to see in near-IR and long wave UV.
    I liked music better.
    May the smegma of ten thousand camels infest the ears of the SOB that crafted the IED.
    May he find fiancees in moths, within the federal prison we hold him within.

    Yeah, the IED bomber was captured and tried in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where our foul misleader claimed a massacre.
    And still, I do miss being able to enjoy music. I was actually, rather good at it.