The only chemist in town, and the week they had none

Started 25 April 2026 · 14 replies · 103 hearts · read 2k times

OrsolyaBudapest, HU · 25 April 2026

3 months ago

The only chemist in town, and the week they had none — putting it in its own thread so it does not get lost in the check-in.

I have a letter in front of me and I do not know what it actually says.

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.

What I keep tripping on is not the physical bit. It is the not knowing whether what I am experiencing is normal, and having nobody to ask who is not either selling something or frightened for me.

I will report back either way, because I have been helped by other people's follow-ups more than by their questions.

IlyaAlmaty, KZ

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.

5me too 4

ClémenceNantes, FR

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.

PetraFacilitatorMelbourne, Australia

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

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

IslaOban, 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.

BramleyBath, UK

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

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.

MairéadMayo, IE

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

10me too 7

BryherIsles of Scilly, UK

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

TavitaApia, WS

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

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.

LeniLeipzig, DE

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

GwythFishguard, UK

#10

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

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.

SindriReykjavík, IS

#11

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

SerenLlandudno, UK

#12

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.

PetraFacilitatorMelbourne, Australia

#13

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

Noticing out loud that this conversation has drifted into comparison. That happens without anyone intending it and it does not help anyone. Let us come back to the person who asked.

LlianCarmarthen, UK

#14

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

3me too 6