Surviving

Lexapro HAD been working great at keeping my migraines to a minimum. Unfortunately, there's this little thing called Seratonin Syndrome that rarely occurs if you take it with Imitrex, Maxalt, or any of the other sumatriptan or triptan migraine meds. Both meds increase the seratonin in your body; so when taken together, they can give your body a seratonin overdose. I now know this from experience : (


Thursday afternoon, I had a migraine. So around 3, I took a Maxalt. I figured I should space out the Lexapro and took it around 7:30 instead of 6. By 9 pm, I did not feel right. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I felt horrible. It was 30 degrees outside, but I was sweating profusely. So, I put on as little clothing as possible and tried to watch tv. I was very restless, getting out of bed and back in. Then, I started feeling sick to my stomach, so I took Zofran around 1 am. I was all over the place but finally fell asleep around 3 am.

Around 5, I woke up out of a dead sleep and felt worse than I've ever felt in my life. I ran to the bathroom because I was sweating so badly and felt like I was going to throw up...I didn't. Then, I took my temperature because I didn't know what was going on. That was normal. I then thought to feel my pulse, and it was racing. Kevin was out of town, so I called my friend, Kathleen. She came immediately to be with the kids while I called 911. By the time they got me in the ambulance, my heartrate was 180 and my blood pressure was 169/93. My body was trembling, so they thought I was cold, but I was actually burning up. It was a nightmare.

So, now I am tapering off of the Lexapro. It helped so much and made me so sick to get on, so I'm very frustrated to have to stop it now after all of this. I have to go off of it though because I have to have Imitrex or Maxalt. I am once again back to square one...waiting to try another migraine preventive. I don't plan to take anything until after Christmas. I'd rather have migraines over Christmas than a reaction to some new med.

On top of all of this, Kevin's kidney stone apparently did not pass and is bothering him off and on, and Jule's ear infection did not clear up with the antibiotics. Kevin took him in Saturday morning after a very long Friday night of screaming, and his right ear was still very bad. They gave him an antibiotic shot Saturday, and he will get one today and another tomorrow. The poor baby has been in so much pain.

Tomorrow is my birthday. Oh, how we need a break! We need everyone to feel good. I'm praying we can make it to Indiana for Christmas since we did not make it last year due to Jule's ears. Calgon, take me away.....