A pharmacist who rang round the state for me

Started 18 August 2025 · 21 replies · 178 hearts · read 3.4k times

BronwenBarry, UK · 18 August 2025

11 months ago

Something I have been sitting with: A pharmacist who rang round the state for me Not looking for advice so much as other people's experience.

Regional question, because I have read a great deal of advice that turns out to be true in one country only.

What I would find most useful is not advice. It is somebody describing what their version of this was, and how long it went on for.

The thing that has surprised me most is how much of this is about other people rather than about me.

Sorry for the length. If anyone has been here, I would very much like to hear it.

BramwellRipon, UK

Please do not read the comments under news articles about this. I lost a fortnight to that.

CallaWellington, NZ

What the opening post described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

I asked my nurse the same question and she said something I have repeated ever since: that the aim is to keep you on treatment, not to get you up the schedule.

8me too 5

PetraFacilitatorMelbourne, Australia

Gently: you have apologised three times in a post where you have done nothing that requires an apology.

NyreeChristchurch, NZ

What helped was lowering my own expectations of the week rather than trying to hold the week together.

NoraDublin, IE

Coming back to this a fortnight later to say it settled. Leaving the update because I hate reading threads that stop.

OttaviaBologna, IT

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.

BevanSwansea, UK

the reply above said something I want to sit with for a second.

I did exactly the same and felt terrible about it. You have not done anything wrong.

9me too 3

TamarPlymouth, UK

Practical, boring answer: write the three questions down before you go in. I have never once remembered them otherwise.

OzzyAdelaide, AU

the reply above — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

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.

HollisBath, UK

#10

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.

DotFalmouth, UK

#11

What the reply above described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

My experience was very boring, which I offer as data. Some of us just get a dull time of it.

TillyHereford, UK

#12

Similar here, and mine turned out to be a completely unrelated deficiency picked up on bloods.

OzrenZagreb, HR

#13

I have been in this circle a year and this question comes round every few months. It is not a silly question. It is the question.

TavitaApia, WS

#14

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.

5me too 7

CatoAntwerp, BE

#15

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

9me too 3

GusStirling, UK

#16

Gently disagreeing with the reply above, or rather adding the other half of it.

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.

BodhiByron Bay, AU

#17

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

For what it is worth, the trial data on this is thinner than the confidence of the internet would suggest. Worth knowing when you read the posts.

OttiHarrogate, UK

#18

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

AriaAuckland, NZ

#19

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

PetraFacilitatorMelbourne, Australia

#20

the reply above — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

If any of this has landed close to home for you while reading, our support resources page lists the kinds of services worth finding. No obligation and no drama.

BronwenBarry, UK

#21

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

8me too 8