So. One of the lovely side effects of Ted, is that I gain weight like the wind blows. I'm not exaggerating when I say that in a single night I gained 7.5 lbs. At first the doctors didnt believe me... So I kept a food and exercise journal for 2 weeks and then took it in to show them. With no change in calorie intake, always below 1500 a day, and with workouts every other day averaging 3 miles, I still managed to gain 14 lbs. BLAH. They even ran my body fat index and BMI to confirm and sure enough- Ted was making me a fatty. So the solution..... a drug called phentermine. Its pretty common in the world of weight loss, and since Ted/Hormones were making my body spin out of control, they figured that the phentermine would help balance everything out. And it did. I've lost all the weight I gained, plus a few extra vanity pounds, and things have been great. In fact this is my last month of having to take it, which is an extra good thing: which I explain below.
So phentermine has some pretty nasty side effects including: hyptertension, pulmonary hypertension, occular degeneration, parathesias, blood clots, tachycardia, dyspnea... Ya. If your not seeing a trend amongst those side effects basically in a nut shell phentermine is REALLY bad for your heart and lungs. And its something that Ive been kinda paranoid about. When I first started taking it I would have this feeling like I wasnt breathing enough and would constantly have to take huge breaths of air to get it to go away. Then I started having these little random bits of chest pain. But me being me, I have always just dissmissed it as me being paranoid. A few times I noticed my heart rate getting a little high. One time while standing in an OR watching an open heart surgery (not as exciting as it sounds) my heart rate, while simply standing there bored, was 108. Hmmmm not ok. And then one time I had a really high blood pressure, like 145/98- which I brushed off later as being the result of getting sick which i was at the time-- and my Doc agreed with me-- we've talked about my paranoia a few times, since he has similar concerns. But today sorta put the icing on the cake.
When I woke up this morning I decided I would take a full dose (I have been taking half doses for a while) so I did. Later this morning, around 11ish, I had to walk to the nursing building. Its slightly uphill but nothing crazy and then up a flight of stairs. When I got to the top I noticed I felt sorta shaky. So in my paranoid way I took my pulse. 245. not even kidding. My heart doesnt even go that fast after Ive ran 4 miles, let alone walked across campus! So. Maybe I'm not being paranoid. Maybe I actually need to look at that and go "HOLY SHIT THATS BAD!" Because it is. Just sitting here Im around 80- which is still high for me, since normally I'm low around 55-60. So thus.... no more phentermine for me. Ive only got about 2 more weeks that Im supposed to take for the doctors anyways... but Im just gonna cut it short. Its just not worth the risk.
No comments:
Post a Comment