Niaspan = Hell

Last night I started a new medication, and I didn't think a thing about taking the cholesterol med.  Until, in the middle of the night, I woke up and thought I was going to die.  My skin all felt like it was on fire.  I had to throw up, but I was so dizzy I could hardly get to the bathroom.  I called to my parents for help, they helped me to the bathroom, my skin burning and red and my muscles week.  I thought I was having a massive allergic reaction to something and said I needed a ride to the emergency room.

Then Mom remembered I just started the Niaspan.  She read the side-effects:  flushing, headache, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, increased cough, and itching.  Flushing.  I had read that before but for some reason I assumed it meant the kind of red face and mildly uncomfortable hotness I get from some tartar sauces.  I did NOT expect to feel like my skin was on being covered in flame-tipped needles.  Or be hanging over my head over the toilet, aching like I had the flu.

Apparently my body and Niaspan do NOT get along. I threw them away and I won't be taking it again.  But I was able to take something for the Nausea and sleep at least.  All today (because, yay, the pills were EXTENDED RELEASE) I have felt like crap, but not AS much like crap as earlier.

This is the 2nd worst medical reaction in my life.  Maybe even equal to the worst time.  The Neurologist, my old neurologist, ordered me the wrong dosage on a pill... FOUR TIMES the right amount, and it caused an actual "trip."  Like hallucinations that my ceiling was dripping with thick pink paint and my stuffed animals dancing around, erratically. IT WAS TERRIFYING.

Okay, actually, this was the 2nd or 3rd.  The worst was after the Sphenopalatine block.  They dripped some numbing stuff in my nose and I couldn't walk, with out falling down or throwing up ALL DAY.  It felt like when I had West Nile on the mission, but WORSE.

I hate hate hate pills. I hate being sick.  I hate being me.