Up to now I've been trying to manage the tiredness with energy vitamins and caffeine, but I stopped the caffeine about a week ago because it aggravates my heartburn. I take the vitamins around 1pm at work in hopes that they will kick in before I get home and give me the energy to do some things around the house and make dinner before the family gets home. In talking to Dr. Banks, she suggested I try a medication called Amantadine which is mainly used to treat Parkinson's or Influenza, but it has also been shown to improve fatigue levels in people with MS. At this point I'm willing to try anything, but I am also always nervous because you never know what side effects you are going to get with anything new.
Because I have been on steroids and have had quite a few side effects with those, I decided I would wait until I was off the steroids to try the Amantadine, so I took it for the first time yesterday. Yesterday actually didn't go too badly. I took it first thing in the morning with a protein shake at the office. Within the hour I did feel a little bit dizzy, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I didn't feel overly nauseous, but I definitely didn't want to eat anything and ended up not eating until dinner time.
As a note, I am very cautious in what I am eating right now and am trying to stick to a pretty bland diet because when I eat anything overly greasy or acidic I end up with terrible heartburn, sitting on the toilet for an hour, (TMI, I know, but I feel it's important to be honest for anyone else experiencing these symptoms so they know it is normal... this is what has saved me the past couple of weeks), or, in one extreme case on Friday night, throwing up. (I was feeling really good Friday, so we decided to go out to eat to our favorite burger place... after eating a burger, fries and shake, I came home feeling absolutely sick to my stomach and ended up throwing it all up within the hour.) Thus my diet has mainly consisted of protein shakes, bananas, cherries, Activia yogurt, toast, beans, (black, cannallini and garbanzo all seem to agree with me), shredded canned chicken breast, rice and some salad, (but skipping most of the tomatoes and onions). Needless to say, I've lost 15 pounds the past two weeks, but that is definitely a good, healthy loss... I need to lose another stack.
Today I was feeling good when I got to work. I drank my protein shake just like yesterday and downed the Amantadine, except this time, it didn't go so well. Within the hour I was feeling incredibly nauseous to the point where several times I ran to the bathroom expecting to throw up, but luckily I never did. Also, the dizziness was definitely a lot worse than yesterday. I was miserable the entire day at work and counting down the hours, but thanks to a pack of saltines in my laptop bag and plenty of iced water, I made it through. After I got home I was on the toilet most of the afternoon with horrible cramping. That lasted a couple of hours.
I called Dr Banks about 4:30pm and she told me to discontinue the meds for now and we would talk again next week and decide what the next steps would be. I finally started feeling better about 6:30pm, but did not eat anything all day or night other than the saltines. (Unfortunately, I had scheduled our neighborhood recipe exchange for this evening and I was really sad not to be able to taste any of the amazing food that was brought, but I took samples to taste tomorrow and definitely enjoyed the company).
At this point I don't know if I will give the medicine another shot or not. I suppose I should try it one more time, but I would be lying if I didn't say that it scares me to think about going through today again. Ah, the joys of trying new meds.
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