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A question rather than an update: Pharmacies abroad in an emergency
The logistics of this are defeating me more than the medicine is.
I have written down what has actually happened, in order, because I find that more useful than my summary of it.
I have read the guides here, which were more useful than anything else I have found, and I still have a question they do not cover.
Sorry for the length. If anyone has been here, I would very much like to hear it.
70
Two things that helped me, neither of them clever: small amounts more often, and drinking a lot more than felt necessary.
7
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19
the reply above said something I want to sit with for a second.
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.
5
Mine lasted about seven weeks and then lifted over a few days. I cannot tell you why. I can tell you it lifted.
10
No advice, just recognition. That sounds exhausting and I am sorry you are in it.
6
What the reply above described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.
I keep a two-line diary and it is the only reason I could answer this question about myself. Worth starting even now.
13
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.
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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.
11me too 4
I am about four months behind you and I have been dreading exactly this, so thank you for writing it down before I got there.
9
Building on what the reply above wrote rather than answering the original question.
Yes to the burping. It is real, it is unbeautiful, and it does settle.
10me too 7
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.
8
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.
6
Practical, boring answer: write the three questions down before you go in. I have never once remembered them otherwise.
10
Gently disagreeing with the reply above, or rather adding the other half of it.
I did exactly the same and felt terrible about it. You have not done anything wrong.
8
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.
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the reply above — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.
Coming back to this a fortnight later to say it settled. Leaving the update because I hate reading threads that stop.
7me too 4
What the reply above described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.
What helped was lowering my own expectations of the week rather than trying to hold the week together.
11
My experience was very boring, which I offer as data. Some of us just get a dull time of it.
9
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?
12me too 1
Thank you for writing this. I am not going to add information to it. I am going to say that what you have described is very common and very rarely said out loud.
19
the reply above — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.
It got worse before it got better for me, which I wish someone had said. About ten days of worse.
11