Dr. Diana, please jump in anytime! Thank you so much for doing so! I’m sorry about your shoulder. My mom has frozen shoulder, so I know it can be very painful. I am very fortunate I am one of what seems like the few without pain issues as of yet. I haven’t tried Diamox yet. (I’m one allergic to sulpha and I’m going to ask about doing a cautious trial of it.)
Ourfullhouse, I have 25 mg pills of Atarax and it is WAY too high of a dose… it just knocks me out. I could not function taking that during the day AT ALL. I have been taking about half of a pill at night and just a small chip (less than a 1/4) during the day. It comes in a 10 mg pill so I’m going to ask my Rheumi for 10 mg pills instead. There is also a liquid form but I don’t know what fillers it uses. I am allergic to percocet and morphine also. I got a rash and itching with percocet and no rash but insane itching with morphine. The hydroxyzine is supposed to help some pain killers work better but I haven’t used Atarax with any pain meds at all.
How does the Atarax help? I’m not sure what everyone else means by brain fog, so I’ll explain my symptoms. Sometimes, I have trouble “finding words.” I will be trying to say something and if I get interrupted I have trouble remembering my “line of thinking.” There are times I will be talking (or writing)and I know what I want to say and it is like I suddenly can’t access the file I was just in… does that make sense to anyone? But this doesn’t happen all the time. It’s like my brain becomes a sieve or like swiss cheese. So I can be talking very technically one minute, with all kinds of medical jargon… and suddenly it is like ooops! Where was I going with this? UGH, ugh, ugh…. and it feels like I’ve got a little mouse in my brain running around in a maze trying to find the word I want. If I’m distracted, I can forget what I was talking about or the direction I had been going with my conversation. So I stammer… umm, mmm. “What was I saying?” Then when I remember I’m off and running. It is like I’m an athlete doing the hurdles and then tripping and falling… it is hard to get up and jumping again once I’ve tripped and fallen. It is so embarassing. Anyway, the ATARAX seems to really help me with that… to not be a “space cadet”. It also helps me pay attention and listen better than concerta or adderall do. I have much less trouble finding my words, my speech is more fluent, and my thoughts are more coherent. But this is an episodic thing with me… I’m a “space cadet” sometimes and not others. I remember being teased about this in high school. “GAWD…. you are such a space cadet sometimes!” Many people have told me they are shocked I am as intelligent as I am when they got to know me. I always come off as such a “ditz” when I first meet people. I thought it was from being shy or social anxiety, but when I meet most people for the first time… I’m usually standing up!
My best to you both, SweetFeather