Thursday: The Jump Start for the Car Parked in my Mind

If you ever find yourself in need
You can submit your request in writing
And this is what you do

Send in a self-addressed stamped envelope
To PO Box 900
Los Angeles
California
90212
And I will fill your prescription with some degree of accuracy
And then I’ll send it back to you

— Dick Valentine, “I Buy The Drugs”

Since apparently I can be trusted with a prescription for reasonably serious drugs, but not to wait until getting home to take a one-time dose of said serious drugs, I was discharged from O’Connor empty-handed, and had to visit my local Walgreens to stock up.

My prescription sheets were apparently not entirely regulation, leading me to have to wait for a bit while one of the pharmacists sorted things out. I passed the time sitting in a demonstration HoMedics shiatsu massage chair, starting to write up my experiences in MarsEdit. (Little MacBook, I love you so much, even if your Intel-supplied graphics “acceleration” causes you to break a fan-wheezing sweat whenever you contemplate the existence of more than two dimensions at once. You are my constant and faithful companion through light and darkness.)

Anyway, I eventually got my medication. Here’s the initial loadout:

  • Dexamethasone. I started off taking 2 mg of this three times daily, but we’ve already dialed it down to 1 mg twice a day, and will be dialing it down further over the next couple of days. A big-gun steroid — mainly intended, as far as I can tell, to prevent the lesion from swelling and crowding healthy parts of my brain, should it be so inclined. No ‘roid rage so far, that I can tell. Stop asking. I SAID, STOP ASKING!

  • Levetiracetam, brand name Keppra: an anticonvulsant. Since what I experienced last Wednesday bore some vague resemblance to Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, this may help prevent recurrences until we have a better handle on what’s going on. Basically, the idea is to damp down electrical activity in my brain just enough to prevent any additional storms. I’ve felt a little dreamy — a little dissociated, the way I might after having half a glass of wine — since I started taking it. I don’t know for certain that this is a direct effect of the Keppra, but it seems a safe guess. It’s not at all unpleasant, and it doesn’t seem to produce any gross impairment. Initial dosage was 500 mg twice daily, and we’ve stuck with that.

  • Pantoprazole, brand name Protonix. This is a “proton pump inhibitor”, intended to keep the other medications from causing acid reflux. As far as I know, it has no direct therapeutic function of its own. I’m taking 40 mg in the morning.

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