Side effects may be more prominent than they appeared in the little pamphlet

Have you ever, like me, found it fun to mock pharmaceutical commercials for their full-speed babble about all the horrible things the drug will do to you while so-called fixing your original complaint? Jeff Foxworthy has an awesome tribute to side effects (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeff_Foxworthy), and he is pretty close.

I took a new medication Sunday night (for a female issue...you don't want the details), and instead of experiencing the first-tier side effects like, say, headaches and mild nausea, I got to enjoy the second-tier side effects of staying up allllllll night long vomiting and having the shakes. Clearly, this is not the medication for me. I have not taken it since Sunday night, but, oh, it is not done with me. I am home from work today (thank God I telecommute on Mondays so I at least didn't waste another day off on this crap) to continue recuperating. I was up most of last night, though I was able to fall asleep for restless little jags starting around 3am, which, sadly, is a massive improvement over Sunday night.

I guess I'll be grateful that I didn't have the "holy crap, get to the ER right now" third tier of side effects, but when you're vomiting up individual Cheerios that you'd been hoping were innocuous enough to make it past the bouncers guarding your stomach, that distinction starts to make a lot less difference than you might think. I was at least intelligent enough to put a call in to my dr's 24hr answering service and talk to the dr on call, who calmly informed me that some people react strongly to this particular medication. No shit, Sherlock. He also informed me that what I took was a "very small dose" (and again, thank God for that) and that the symptoms would improve eventually. Again, gee, thanks. I mean, while there is some reassurance in not having a medical professional tell you to high-tail it to the ER, that fades pretty quickly when you hang up the phone and go barf for the billionth time. I felt better when I had morning sickness with Henry, and at least that was for a more worthwhile reason.

So I'll be trying to catch up on my sleep today while the remainder of my "very small dose" works its way out of my system once and for all. Then I'll give my dr a call when her office opens and see what the next step is. I can tell you what it is not: Taking any more of those horrible little pills. Next time you get a prescription and read the pamphlet, consider how you might feel if you did get some of the worse side effects. Better yet, ask your dr more questions about the drug before you agree to take it. That was my first mistake. I only learned of the first-tier side effects and went no further until it was toooooo late. Lesson learned, I can tell you that!