It's hard to remember what life was like before we had a world of information at our fingertips on the internet's World Wide Web...
I realize that I can't trust everything that I read online, but it is such a great research tool...
I recently wrote about a new rocking chair that I had acquired because of my new leg pain.
I realized how bad my walking had become a few weeks later when I got off the city bus... It was soooo hard to step down. I clung to the railing because my legs couldn't support me.
Has it come to that? Terry commented once I was down. You looked like you were really struggling...
I was... And I was surprised too how hard getting down off the bus had become...
Do I have arthritis? Maybe it's time to see the doctor...
But first, I want to see if this could be a side-effect of one of the two medications I'm on...
When I checked online, I discovered that swelling of muscles and joints was a rare but documented side effect of the diabetes medication I'd been on for about a year. Once the medication is discontinued, it apparently takes up to a month to get back to normal. But the stiffness comes back if the medication is resumed.
I quickly made an appointment to see my doctor, who supported my going off it to see what happens.
Two weeks later, I'm a lot better... And I'm trying to avoid using any medication for diabetes by switching to a vegan diet that lowered my blood sugar before. At the time, I was reluctant to stay on it since Terry is a meat eater and it would mean we'd eat different things...
But after getting a taste of this pain, I'm ready to try anything to avoid taking medication - which can have its own debilitating side effects.
(And I wouldn't have known anything about recent side-effect discoveries if it hadn't been for the information online.)
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