Life, Work, Travel, and Other Side Effects
Apr. 8th, 2003 01:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lawnrrdIt is 2 AM on the seventh day of my return to the world of antidepressants. I am thus experiencing the worst of the side effects, but I have yet to enjoy any of the benefits. I've done this before, so I'm not surprised, but that doesn't make it fun. I have a badly dry mouth, so I'm drinking water all the time, which also entails pissing all the time. When I do sleep, I often have the strangest dreams. And I'm hypervigilant for any signs of jaundice, as the drug has very rarely been linked to total, permanent liver failure.
I've taken this drug (Serzone, for those of you keeping score at home) twice before without a problem, so I expect to be fine this time, too, but occasionally freaking out about the marginal risks is just something I do.
At the moment, the most annoying side effect is that I'm not sleeping properly. The drug is actually sedating; starting about half an hour after I take the pill, I need very badly to sleep for thirty to sixty minutes. After that, I wake up and feel a weird energy that cannot be translated into anything useful, but merely keeps me from sleeping. It's like when I drink too much coffee too late at night: I'm too wired to sleep, but too tired to do much else.
The drug is not the only reason for my sleep trouble, I'm sure. The time change screws things up for a day or two, as does the recent, short trip to Chicago. Lauren went to grad school at Northwestern and just received an alumni service reward. Since she had to be present to accept the award, we went to Chicago for the weekend.
The ceremony was at the Chicago Ritz-Carlton (which is managed by the Four Seasons hotel chain, a situation analogous to Burger King corporation managing a McDonald's restaurant), so that's where we stayed. The hotel was lovely. The lobby is immense and on the twelfth floor of the building, but feels as though it's at ground level. There is in the lobby a large pond with koi. The bed in our room was one of the most comfortable I've ever slept in.
The ceremony was impressive, too. Other honorees included the president of Akamai and the former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan. The food was good (especially the hors d'oeuvre--I love hors d'oeuvre), the speeches were short, and the wine flowed freely. Lauren's mother1 came from Philadelphia, and some friends of Lauren who live in Chicago came too.
The trip out was annoying, though. The weather closed O'Hare for most of the day on Friday, so I didn't get to bed until 2 AM. (Lauren had flown out the night before.) I thus slept most of the day on Saturday and didn't get to see much. Sunday we had a couple of hours to kill, so we went to the observatory on the roof of the John Hancock building, experiencing the requisite WTC flashbacks in the process. Then we went to the Art Institute and looked at art. We were met there by Lauren's old friend Rob, who had almost thrown my bachelor party. Then Sunday night we came home.
My life is actually full of travel these days. We went to Florida a couple of weeks ago, and Wednesday night I have to go to Provo, Utah for a couple of days. Then it's down to Philadelphia this weekend for a bris, followed by a trip to Atlanta the following weekend.
(Which reminds me to apologize to those of you I like to see from time to time, but haven't recently. I'm just not around much these days.)
But for now I'm home. Tonight was the ranking scrimmage, in which we tried to establish which division my new volleyball team2 will play in. We played two games against a team that also needed to be ranked and won them both. I expect that we will be in division five this season, but if we jell we could easily play division four next season. (There are seven divisions: seven is the worst, one is the best.) Despite losing to us, the other team insisted that they belonged in division four because they had forgotten to bring rulers and couldn't settle the real issue.3 They'll likely get what they want and then not win any games.
It's possible that all our games this season will be on Thursday nights, which would suck lots as it would interfere with piano bar.
Finally, and not connected to anything else, I think I would like to redo my LJ bio, but I can't really figure out what to do because everything seems too whiny or like the product of too much therapy. I've also been told that my current bio captures a lot of who I am. Maybe that's why I want to change it.
1Who, let's not forget, was almost my stepmother instead of my mother-in-law.
2Through what can be explained only by a serious mistake on someone's part, I appear to be captain of this team.
3Think for a minute if you need to. You'll figure it out.
I've taken this drug (Serzone, for those of you keeping score at home) twice before without a problem, so I expect to be fine this time, too, but occasionally freaking out about the marginal risks is just something I do.
At the moment, the most annoying side effect is that I'm not sleeping properly. The drug is actually sedating; starting about half an hour after I take the pill, I need very badly to sleep for thirty to sixty minutes. After that, I wake up and feel a weird energy that cannot be translated into anything useful, but merely keeps me from sleeping. It's like when I drink too much coffee too late at night: I'm too wired to sleep, but too tired to do much else.
The drug is not the only reason for my sleep trouble, I'm sure. The time change screws things up for a day or two, as does the recent, short trip to Chicago. Lauren went to grad school at Northwestern and just received an alumni service reward. Since she had to be present to accept the award, we went to Chicago for the weekend.
The ceremony was at the Chicago Ritz-Carlton (which is managed by the Four Seasons hotel chain, a situation analogous to Burger King corporation managing a McDonald's restaurant), so that's where we stayed. The hotel was lovely. The lobby is immense and on the twelfth floor of the building, but feels as though it's at ground level. There is in the lobby a large pond with koi. The bed in our room was one of the most comfortable I've ever slept in.
The ceremony was impressive, too. Other honorees included the president of Akamai and the former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan. The food was good (especially the hors d'oeuvre--I love hors d'oeuvre), the speeches were short, and the wine flowed freely. Lauren's mother1 came from Philadelphia, and some friends of Lauren who live in Chicago came too.
The trip out was annoying, though. The weather closed O'Hare for most of the day on Friday, so I didn't get to bed until 2 AM. (Lauren had flown out the night before.) I thus slept most of the day on Saturday and didn't get to see much. Sunday we had a couple of hours to kill, so we went to the observatory on the roof of the John Hancock building, experiencing the requisite WTC flashbacks in the process. Then we went to the Art Institute and looked at art. We were met there by Lauren's old friend Rob, who had almost thrown my bachelor party. Then Sunday night we came home.
My life is actually full of travel these days. We went to Florida a couple of weeks ago, and Wednesday night I have to go to Provo, Utah for a couple of days. Then it's down to Philadelphia this weekend for a bris, followed by a trip to Atlanta the following weekend.
(Which reminds me to apologize to those of you I like to see from time to time, but haven't recently. I'm just not around much these days.)
But for now I'm home. Tonight was the ranking scrimmage, in which we tried to establish which division my new volleyball team2 will play in. We played two games against a team that also needed to be ranked and won them both. I expect that we will be in division five this season, but if we jell we could easily play division four next season. (There are seven divisions: seven is the worst, one is the best.) Despite losing to us, the other team insisted that they belonged in division four because they had forgotten to bring rulers and couldn't settle the real issue.3 They'll likely get what they want and then not win any games.
It's possible that all our games this season will be on Thursday nights, which would suck lots as it would interfere with piano bar.
Finally, and not connected to anything else, I think I would like to redo my LJ bio, but I can't really figure out what to do because everything seems too whiny or like the product of too much therapy. I've also been told that my current bio captures a lot of who I am. Maybe that's why I want to change it.
1Who, let's not forget, was almost my stepmother instead of my mother-in-law.
2Through what can be explained only by a serious mistake on someone's part, I appear to be captain of this team.
3Think for a minute if you need to. You'll figure it out.
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no subject
Date: 2003-04-08 12:01 am (UTC)I hope the good bits of the meds kick in soon for you.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-08 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-08 12:13 am (UTC)On the whole, things are working out for me, really. I just have a couple of annoyances at the moment.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-08 07:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-08 12:11 am (UTC)The last time I went on the drugs I never really got the good bits, though, because the doctor wouldn't prescribe a useful therapeutic dose. According to the prescribing information, an otherwise healthy adult should take 400 mg/day, but this doctor never gave me more than 125. I think he was just trying to placate me by giving me pills.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-08 05:17 am (UTC)Between my decongestant and diet medication, I've become an insufferable morning person type that gets up at 6A, is way alert all day, and then finally convinces myself to get to bed at midnight.
Crazyness!
Then again, I've secretly suspected for a few weeks now that I really AM a morning person, it was just the extra weight bogging me down to no end and making me sleepy.
Feh.
See you in Atlanta!