I have done fourteen and it is still hard

Started 9 February 2025 · 14 replies · 135 hearts · read 2.3k times

CatoAntwerp, BE · 9 February 2025

1.4 years ago

A question rather than an update: I have done fourteen and it is still hard

I have avoided asking about this for six weeks out of pure embarrassment.

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.

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

My prescriber has been fine, genuinely. The problem is that I get nine minutes twice a year and there is no version of nine minutes that covers this.

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

NadirCasablanca, MA

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

IslaOban, UK

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

BrackAlnwick, UK

Building on what the opening post wrote rather than answering the original question.

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.

EsiFacilitatorToronto, Canada

I want to slow this down a little. There are four different answers flying about and they are all somebody's real experience, which makes them true and not necessarily relevant to the person who asked.

IvesPenzance, UK

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.

OmarAmman, JO

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

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

6me too 7

Ozzy GWalsall, UK

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

SableCape Town, ZA

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.

NylaNairobi, KE

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.

8me too 4

TedIpswich, UK

#10

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.

ZoëHackney, UK

#11

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

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?

SaraOslo, NO

#12

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

EsiFacilitatorToronto, Canada

#13

Two things, both boring. First, none of us can tell you what to take. Second, the conversation you want to have is with your prescriber, and we can help you write it down.

DelythBala, UK

#14

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

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.