[Adventure] in Prescription Side Effects

[Adventure 18]

One of the things about living with multiple chronic illnesses is that I get to take a bunch of medications to keep my body from attacking itself and to combat some of the side effects of the medications I take. But then the medications for the side effects have their own side effects. 

The possible side effects of medications I'm on include the usual suspects such as headache, nausea, vomiting, runny or stuffy nose, abdominal pain, indigestion, upper respiratory tract infection, cough, and rash. 

And then there are the conflicting side effects such as decreased appetite, increased appetite, insomnia, falling asleep without warning, increased blood pressure, decreased blood pressure, weight loss, weight gain, hyperactivity, and fatigue.  

And the more interesting ones such as  confusion of identity, hypersensitivity,  heat sensitivity, excessive sweating, tremors, excitement, restlessness, memory loss,  hallucinations, writhing, itching, nightmares, disturbed color perception, dysphoria, euphoria, mimicry of speech movements, mutism, noisy breathing, paranoia, and voice changes.

My favorites are abnormal thinking, unusual body movements, poor or worsening impulse control, vivid dreams, confusion of place and/or time, crying, irritability, and rapidly changing moods. I'm not sure how to tell these particular ones apart from just me acting as I normally do. And apparently neither does my family, because when I read these, they asked if I was listing side effects of being me or prescription side effects. 

We play the game of Side Effect or Just Me? quite often, along with Side Effect or Symptom? and Side Effect or Sickness? They are not exactly games I enjoy playing, nevertheless, they put a sense of adventure into my day.