The Murphy Guy With The Law Tried To Murder Me

a reply to: Hefficide

I got effing stomach ulcers from quitting smoking. That acid can be serious stuff. I'm glad you found someone who recognized this "minor" problem as actually not so minor especially since it is so easily corrected with a readily available drug.

Thanks all for the input, thoughts and the well wishes! It truly means the world to me. ATS has been my online home for better than a decade and there's nothing like walking back into the front door of the homestead and being greeted with kindness and open arms.

So thank you!

So far I'm still feeling good. I had a bit of a backslide yesterday but it was because of my own stupidity. I have an appointment with my cardiologist later this week and I wanted to make sure that the Lopressor was, indeed, negatively effecting me - and that it wasn't just a case of ten other things making me think that the Lopressor was causing side effects.

So I took a half dose yesterday to check.

Sure enough, the tingling and burning sensation and anxiety returned quickly and remained for about 12 hours - roughly the stated half-life of the medication. The symptoms weren't terrible as it was just one half of a dose and I didn't already have any built up in my system but it did seem to verify my theory.

Thankfully I woke up today again feeling, as I previously said, better than I have in literally a decade or more. I feel really good!

Oh and on a smoking cessation side note... I've started talking one mile walks recently - at least two per day - and just a few minutes ago I was on such a walk. It's still dark here and the air is absolutely gorgeous for walking. But as I made it to the main street, where traffic is already starting to build, I noticed a smell.

Exhaust. Car exhaust.

The relevant factor. It's been decades since the last time I picked up on that smell while walking down a street. I've smelled it in enclosed environments like garages over the years but not outside.

Strange the things that you lose without even realizing that you've lost them.

a reply to: Hefficide

Sounds like your sense of smell is coming back.

Do yourself a treat and head over to a flower garden, or a florist shop,

Or my favorite, a bakery when the fresh bread is just coming out of the oven.

If you haven’t, really, smelled that aroma in a while the scent will make life worth living!

Yet another update because this Murphy dude is persistent...

I find myself in a really absurd situation. Apparently my state ( Georgia ) passed a new law just a week or two ago meant to deal with the national Opiate crisis. The long and short of it being that doctors are severely restricted on their ability to write prescriptions for certain kinds of medications... Included in this list of restricted medications are those for anxiety.

So I spent three days last week seeing my cardiologist, two ER doctors, the doctor at a walk in clinic and the intake nurse at a local mental heath facility - all explaining that they cannot treat my PTSD or even my GERD as it's technically related TO my PTSD / anxiety.

Apparently the only fix is to establish a relationship with a primary care physician who can then collate all of my test results and petition the Department of Health and Human services - who as I understand it ( and I may not understand it as it's complicated beyond all comprehension ) have been put in control of such issues in my state by the DEA - to provide some sort of authorization for me to be listed as an exception and to enable treatment of my medical issues.

Or something like that.

All these years of screaming that we will NOT face "death panels" in the US - despite the propaganda - and now I find myself kind of literally facing one.

a reply to: Hefficide

Sounds like a crazy situation when doctors have to ask permission to prescribe medication they believe is necessary to treat a patient , doctors should be trusted to make medical decisions not a health panel.

Keep on fighting the fight Heff , you can do it.