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...