Ariel's Two Cents

 I guess the third time will be the charm because I discovered that I am having a reaction to yet another medication.  It's the strangest situation, I'll tell you.  I wear the Visible armband to help me track my activity levels and how they affect my chronic pain and chronic illnesses.  It works wonders for me and at this point, I have to say that using the device may have saved my life, in a way.  The device works by tracking your heart rate and heart rate zones.  It gives you points for the activities, and the goal is to stay under a certain number of points.  Well, I was not earning any points during any activities because my heart rate was in the 40's and 50's.  I started some medications for the second allergic reaction, and the Famotidine has a rare side effect of Bradycardia and if you know anything about me, you know that I always get the rare side effects and reactions.  I'm just lucky like that.   I had to do some resea...

 I guess it's time for another update about my autoimmune life.  I've had another medical emergency this past week.  Tuesday night, I took my first dose of Carbamazepine for my Bipolar mood swings .  I had an appointment scheduled with the prescribing doctor the next morning, Wednesday.  Well, when I woke up Wednesday morning, I had a rash starting on my chest.  When I met with the doctor, we decided to stop the medication, which I had already decided that without his input as soon as I saw the rash starting.  We decided to just get back to a more natural state for now and will discuss adding a new medication on our next appointment.  He told me what allergic reactions to look for and a sore throat was one of the things that he mentioned.  I woke up Thursday morning with a sore throat and the rash was much, much worse than the night before.   After doing a bit of research, I decided that it would be best if I went to Urgent Care ag...

 I saw my neurologist last month and she finally changed my medication.  I was on Emgality for migraines, but it just was not effective, so she prescribed me Ajovy.  I picked it up last week and did my first injection Saturday evening.  It went fine.  It was actually easier than Emgality and it did not hurt at all, whereas Emgality would burn and sting so bad that I would cry.  I stayed on that medication for a year before the doctor finally listened to me and changed it.  I thought this medication would be a good one, but I was terribly wrong. A few hours after I woke up this morning, my bottom lip started to swell, but only on the left side, which I thought was strange.  I made some phone calls to my medical team and the pharmacy that just filled the Ajovy for me.  All medical personnel directed me to seek immediate medical attention.  The main suspicion was that it's an allergic reaction to Ajovy, although it is strange that it took 4...