Fuelling a long ride on a small appetite

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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