Listen to What Your Body is Trying to Tell You, Then Share it With Your Doctors

Hearing update -- still can't hear, but doctor says I need tubes. Yes, like children have to get. So that's coming up next week.
Coughing update -- tried Vicks Vapor Rub on the bottom of my feet with thick white socks and it seems to have worked. Who knew?

I have a St. Patrick's Day wreath to share with you, but I think I'll wait another day.
Today I must take this opportunity to write about something that's usually not discussed or shared with others...
Please read it through to the end.

In mid-December, I fell into the deepest, darkest depression anyone can imagine. I simply chalked it up to it being the holiday season and missing my mother, and I pushed it back. Who has time for that nonsense?
At the same time, I noticed sores inside my mouth; blisters and a roughness all along the inside of my whole mouth. Some of my little taste buds were swollen. I simply chalked that up to eating all the wrong foods over the holidays and just figured it would go away on its own once I started eating more protein and less junk food.
I also noticed that my neck was slightly swollen, and I chalked that up to possible thyroid changes, making a note to see my doctor after the holidays.

Well, the holidays came and went, and by mid-January the depression was over-whelming -- to the point where I turned away friends, withdrew my involvement in outside activities and just tried to drop off the face of the earth. I was too embarrassed to face anyone, yet I also didn't care who I hurt. Other than to go to work, I really didn't leave the house much at all. The swelling in my neck had also worsened, and the sores in my mouth were larger, but because of my depression, I ignored it all.

At the end of January, I had a standing appointment with my cardiologist. When he asked how I was doing, I said I was fine. He's not a psychologist, right? He's not a dentist, right? He's not my endocrinologist, right? So why tell him all those things that were "wrong" with me? He's just going to refer me to a psychologist, the dentist and the thyroid doctor. I don't need him to tell me that. Ten-minutes later, I was out the door and on my way back to work.

My mouth got worse and worse. I finally made an appointment to see my dentist, and when he saw my mouth, he was very concerned. He thought it could possibly be a type of yeast infection called candida, but he began asking me questions: Have you been on any antibiotics? "No." Are you taking any new medications? "Well, yes. I've been taking a new-to-me blood pressure medication since early December."
He then asked if I knew what it was and because I was in a do-not-care mood, the only thing I could think of was that it began with an A. He got my cardiologist on the phone to see what it was and then my dentist -- yes, my dentist, began looking up the side effects of amlodipine.

Remember -- every one of us is completely different. How one person reacts to a medication might be very different from how another reacts. And the majority of us don't react at all. This is not a warning about the use of amlodipine -- it is, however, a warning about knowing your body, listening to it and telling each of your doctors (because none of us has just one doctor anymore)  EVERYTHING!!

My dentist discovered that I was the rare person to have nearly every side effect of amlodipine. The sores in my mouth, the swollen glands in my neck and even the depression could all be rare side effects of this blood-pressure medication.

I immediately called my cardiologist who changed my prescription. I didn't want to begin taking anything new until I began to feel better -- which I'm happy to say is finally here. (Okay, not including the bronchitis)

It took six-weeks to begin to feel the difference.
I'm no longer in that horrendously dark place of aloneness and despair. My mouth has healed and the swelling in my neck, which got worse before it got better, is gone.

Lesson learned -- I will tell every doctor I see about every little thing that is going on with me from now on. I will never again assume that I can be the one to decide what's important to talk over with my doctor and what isn't. They are going to hear it all, and they can decide what's theirs to fix and what should be referred to another.

Thank you Dr. Gehrig!

Wish you had been here to take care of me, Mom.