The drugs I take

I am writing these posts to learn more about myself: my insides and outside. Today I am listing all the drugs I take. I do worry about taking too many things, but I also want to fix myself. I feel that doctors prescribe stuff to quickly "cure" what ails you, but, at the same time, I do know that some of these are necessary. I work in pharma and I see all sides. I know there is no magic pill that fixes everyone and that it's almost impossible to predict what will work and what will be useless or, even worse, have bad side effects. I suspect I need to shift what I am taking.

I have low thyroid so I take synthroid. I've been on the same dose for about 10 years, longer even, so I guess it's what I need. My metabolism is slow as molasses, but I also know that thyroid meds aren't the cure-all. Even on the synthroid, my body holds onto weight like it's precious gold. I do know that if I forget to take it in the morning, my head gets all wacky.

I have a chronic cough, which is only about half as sexy as it sounds. (It's not sexy.) I'll go into the whole cough thing in more detail in a separate post, but this post is about the drugs I take. I've had the cough since I was in college, so it's not anything serious, but it's always there, in one form or another. As a result of the cough I take pantoprazole and tramadol. The first one is for my acid stomach, although I never have heartburn. I've been scoped, so it's a real thing I have, but the side effects of taking this long-term are, frankly a bit frightening: messed up B-12 levels, dementia, etc. But if I stop taking it, my cough gets to be really terrible, so I keep it in the mix. I think if I stop, I also snore more.

The tramadol is a weird one. I know it's supposed to be a painkiller, but I had a doc prescribe it to suppress my cough reflex. It really is the drug that seems to attack my cough the most directly. Every time I switch doctors (which I've had to do because of moving), they question this. I've had pharmacists insist on calling my doctors about this.

I was taking Allegra every day, but then I had an allergist switch me to nasal sprays, but I've stopped those and my cough hasn't gotten worse. As I said, I am trying to cut back, so I am sticking with stopping these. I have high cholesterol (had it even when I was much thinner, so it's a genetic thing more than a dietary thing.) Simvastatin keeps my cholesterol in check rather nicely.

I started taking Prozac about a year and a half ago. This is related to my head and its association with the coming of menopause. I was having mood swings (mostly downward) that were out of control. These are also stories for another post, but the Prozac has given me a buffer to my moods. I'm able to step away just enough. I still feel things, but this prevents me from a spiral of negativity.

That's the list. I don't think it's especially long for a person my age, but it's not short. I see my doctors prescribing a medication, then never assessing if it's time to go off. I believe that no one knows exactly how different medications interact and/or the longterm effects of treatment, so it is up to me to monitor myself.