The sickness of side effects from taking medication for being sick
It was January 2nd, 2018, three in the morning and I had been up for the past six hours, itching. I was breaking out in red itchy spots and rashes that left my skin inflamed and I could not catch a wink of sleep. When the first spots had shown up, I thought I had eaten something I was allergic to without my knowledge and took antihistamines but there was no relief. I then remembered that my dosage for my mood-stabilizing medication, Lamictal, had been increased recently. I grabbed my phone and dialed my psychiatrist.
“Good Morning,” I whispered yet I was by myself in my own apartment.
“Yes Wema?” he sleepily replied.
“Happy New Year,” I quipped up while scratching my neck.
“Yes,” he replied in a tone that implied I should get to the reason for calling him at such an hour.
“I wanted to ask, can I break out in spots and have itchy skin after we increased my dosage? I saw something about Lamictal rash online and it matches what I’m feeling,” I asked, trying not to sound pushy. From the movements I heard on the phone, I could tell I had roused him.
He asked me if I had a fever, rashes and how far they had spread over my body. I answered yes, yes and that they were appearing all over my body. He advised me to go to the hospital as soon as I could and tell them what was happening so they could treat the rash… As I got ready to go to the hospital, I asked myself why I had to go find out about this possibly life threatening side effect online.
For a number of people taking medication for a variety of mental illnesses, other than the heavy expense of medication (unless one is lucky to be covered by universal healthcare or a high insurance cover), they have to endure numerous undesirable side effects while trying to find the right one or the right combination. These undesirable side effects range from weight gain and change of appetite, loss of libido, exhaustion, short term memory loss among many more. A few may make one’s existing illness worse such as increased depression for the first few weeks when starting on new antidepressants. There are long term side effects that patients often experience years after taking a certain medication for an extended period of time such as liver and kidney damage, hyperthyroidism and withdrawal symptoms due to developed dependency over the course of time.
What then happens to those who present with these side effects at a hospital and those treating them do not make them aware that it is a side effect of their medication? Asking friends that I knew were taking a range of medications from antidepressants to antipsychotics, stimulants and sleeping pills, a number shared what they did to manage their effects; from taking medication for the side effects on top of their already prescribed medication, turning to alternative sources of relief such as marijuana to help with side effects like appetite change and sleep or the most dire and drastic option; abandoning the medication altogether. I was faced with three choices but realised I needed medication for how often I was cycling with each depressive episode getting worse.
“Come in and pick up Lithium. Let’s switch to that,” my psychiatrist said when I called him after leaving the hospital for the rash. I went in and picked up my medication ready to feel better and stabilise my moods.
Days later I was going through campus orientation and I felt like my legs were tied to a chain attached to a metal ball. My jaw felt heavy and I was perched. Anyone who saw me walking must have thought I was not interested in the tour, but I felt like I was losing control of my body. At one point in the tour, the room began to spin and I had to sit down. I took out my phone and fed the Google search bar my symptoms. One of the earliest search results brought side effects of taking lithium. Again, I phoned the doctor and told him what was happening.
“When you take Lithium, you are supposed to increase your water intake because it causes dehydration,” he answered matter of factly after my inquiry. I went to the school clinic and I was given a drip. I went in later that week for a review of my medication. This time for every medication he wanted to give me a prescription for, I searched the medicine on the internet in his presence so that we could agree on what side effects I was willing to live with and which I would not due to inhibiting my ability to function. I settled for adding two types of medication to counteract the side effect I feared most; weight gain. I, therefore, had traded regular bowel movements and appetite changes with any weight gain, as I came to realise three weeks later and decided this was better than the instability being bipolar brought me.
