I am saying no to drugs… Literally. I have absolutely HAD IT with side effects and I’m done with the Pravastatin! After backing off to the point where I thought it was gone for good, the throat irritation returned with a vengeance and I had flu-like symptoms, which you can get on Pravastatin. Didn’t have much of a cough, but I had a little tightness in the chest. Not the OMG severe tightness I had when my thyroid meds backfired on me, but there was some degree of tightness, and it only made sense to assume that the side effects would have worsened had I kept taking the stuff. It really sucks too, to have gotten all excited about not having any stomach or anxiety issues on the stuff, just to end up “sick.”

When I asked the pharmacist about it, she knew exactly what I was talking about and said she doubted the sore throat would go away. She recommended I treat the sore throat and give it a little more time since Pravastatin is said to be highly effective with lowering cholesterol, but dangerous or not, I can’t live that way. A dry mouth and a few aches and pains… ok. But a sore throat and feeling like you’ve got a cold or the flu? No way. It wasn’t scary like levothyroxine can be, but damn was it annoying as hell!

Finally fed up after two years of dealing with side effects on and off, I’d had enough. I’ve simply and totally had my fill of driving myself crazy to keep trying this and keep trying that. I need a break! No more new drugs, no more raising doses on old drugs. Besides, no plaque was found in my arteries and I’m not in imminent danger, so why suffer to prevent a heart attack or a stroke I may never get? Unless it’s a case of do or die, I’m not taking shit. My thyroid is different. That’s not a case of maybe it will die on me. It has died, so levothyroxine is important and needed. I’ll just be damned if I’ll suffer needlessly anymore for the sake of “perfect” numbers or to prevent what may never happen.

Decided not to tell Doc A of my decision till I see her. She’s not my mother. I don’t have to “report” to her.

I gotta die someday anyway. I may not be old yet, but I’m not young either. If a meteorite fell to the earth and killed me, or I died in a car accident, or by a homicidal maniac, or from a disease… then it was obviously meant to be. I have no kids to leave behind, and just like I managed to live alone for many years before meeting Tom, so did he. He’s a big boy. He’d miss me, of course, but he can be self-sufficient, even if that meant he’d have to keep up the house, pets, laundry and other things on top of his job. :)

Why was he wheeling a cart full of groceries alongside the freeway, though, in my dreams last night? LOL, I was watching him from behind a fence or something. There was a cluster of people nearby. He stopped the cart, turned around and walked several feet to talk to some guy. I was worried someone would steal the groceries while he wasn’t paying attention, so I hurried over. I got the impression he was paying the guy to help us somehow, and for some reason, I didn’t feel the guy deserved the money.