Expat pharmacy roulette in the Gulf

Two things that helped me, neither of them clever: small amounts more often, and drinking a lot more than felt necessary.

I would take that to a clinician rather than to us, and I would do it this week. Not because it is definitely serious — because it is the sort of thing that is much easier to rule out than to worry about.

Mine lasted about seven weeks and then lifted over a few days. I cannot tell you why. I can tell you it lifted.

No advice, just recognition. That sounds exhausting and I am sorry you are in it.

Building on what the reply above wrote rather than answering the original question.

I keep a two-line diary and it is the only reason I could answer this question about myself. Worth starting even now.

Different experience here, for balance. Mine did not improve and in the end I stopped, and that was the right call for me. Both outcomes exist.

The phrase that unlocked my appointment was asking what specifically she wanted me to watch for. It moved us from reassurance to a plan in about thirty seconds.

Reading the reply above, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

Yes to the burping. It is real, it is unbeautiful, and it does settle.

Building on what the reply above wrote rather than answering the original question.

Can I gently push back on one thing? Not the substance, just the framing — you have written twice that you should be coping better. Who told you that?

Yes. All of this. I had the same in my third month and I remember thinking there was something specifically wrong with me, which there was not.

My pharmacist was more use than anyone. Ten minutes at the counter, no appointment, no charge.

It got worse before it got better for me, which I wish someone had said. About ten days of worse.

Have you got anyone who can be with you when you do it? It made an enormous difference to me and I felt silly asking.

The thing that changed it for me was going slower, agreed with my prescriber. I am not suggesting you do that. I am saying the conversation exists.

I am the person who had the frightening version of this. I went in, it was investigated, and it was not what anyone feared. Going in is the whole of my advice.