Paroxetine HCl

Reading the potential side effects of drugs just reinforces what my father said when Jerry was in the hospital - that 100 years from now (if they're lucky), people will look back at medicine as practiced in the early 21st century and be amazed at how barbaric it was.  We can only hope so, for their sake, those future people.

Saw the new internist today, and so far I like her - she seemed alert to details, smart and careful.  Er... possibly too careful.  At least, that's my hope with regard to the fact that she wanted me to make an appointment with my gynecologist immediately to look into something she felt while pressing on my pelvis when doing a general physical exam this afternoon.  I told her there's a uterine fibroid in there, and I hope that's all it is - possibly it's larger since whenever I had the last ultrasound, but I'm not noticing any new symptoms, so I hope she's just being extra careful and the appointment with another doctor in my gynecologist's office (my actual gynecologist being booked up through December already!!!!) next Wednesday will reveal nothing new to deal with.  Better not... considering the permanent exclusionary rider on my insurance that means they will pay for NOTHING having to do with the fibroid (that's as it should be, though, right?  Mike Huckabee would just say I'm a house that's already burned down, since I have a pre-existing condition, and you don't insure something that's already burned down.  Might as well just bring out the bulldozers and knock me down and take me off to the landfill already.  Frak yourself, Huckabee).  So I'm hoping, if there is something that needs to be done, there will be some creative paperwork on the part of the doctor's office.  But mainly I'm hoping there's nothing new to worry about.  Although I have to say, in the mental state I'm in, the only thing I'm concerned about is the money - I can't honestly say I care about any of the rest of it right now.  And as an added fun moment, when I got in the car and got out the cellphone to call the gynecologist's office to make an appointment, I had the thought "I suppose it could be cancer of some sort - now our roles will be reversed and Jerry will take care of me for a while..."

... which leads me back to the Paxil, which is what Paroxetine HCl is, an antidepressant.  Based on what I told her, Dr. Monje decided that's the thing to try.  I'll be taking it at night and hoping that none of the many, many potential side effects ends up being a problem for me.  10 mg to start off with.  Tomorrow morning I'll go back to the medical building and have a blood draw, to establish baseline levels (presumably Paxil can mess with something that shows up in blood levels?  No idea...).  I'll also stay with the Xanax for a while until the Paxil has time to build up.  And call the doctor in two weeks to check in, and see her again in a month, unless something bad - or nothing at all - has happened earlier than that, and then we'll take things from there.

Talk about vicious circles - I got out of the doctor's office and wanted immediately to tell Jerry about what's going on.  Which made me feel worse, the fact that I couldn't.  (And of course, I wouldn't be dealing with these issues right now if he were here for me to tell.)

Tired.

The roofers came today - I left while they were still here, and they were gone when I got back, and I have no clue if they finished the job or not (Steve said they would be finishing it today, but that was before they discovered some configuration of crown moulding and roof tiles and gutters that was going to change something about how the job was going to be done).  No plumber today - he got hung up at some other job, so he and Steve will be here some time next week.

I have to fast for 12 hours before the blood draw, and the lab opens at 8 a.m. and I want to get this over with as early as I can, so I only have 2 1/4 hours left for bingeing tonight!  But aha!  Not today!  So far I've done well with the Weight Watchers points - a light bagel with spray butter plus mint tea for breakfast, a late lunch when I got back from the doctor of Muenster on light bread plus a piece of string cheese, supper of Shirataki noodles with broccoli and cauliflower (antique frozen broccoli and cauliflower that I retrieved from the freezer at the cabinet shop, so I have no clue how old it is... but the bag hadn't been opened yet) mixed with a melted Laughing Cow wedge and some fake Parm (from the green can, yup) and a sprinkling of Baco bits.  No, this is not exactly gourmet cooking, but it's a low pointage kick-start.  And I still have points to play with for dessert in a little bit.  (And not to worry, I don't plan to record everything I eat in this blog.  Just today's kickoff of the latest go-round with points.)

ETA: And a banana.  I forgot to mention the banana.  An actual piece of fruit.  Go me.