OCD?

Posted by sheila7a @sheila7a, 12 hours ago

I suffer from Analysis Paralysis.
Does anyone else have this problem(affliction)?
Now that I'm finally taking antibiotics it's getting worse than when I was deciding to take them or not.
Yesterday I found myself thinking 1 hour before a meal, 2-3 hours after a meal over and over.
My doctor has tried to convince me to take
Mirtazapine. He said it would help me sleep.
Does anyone else have this constant battle.
It's exhausting.

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I understand what you mean and trying to keep to the schedule. It does become more routine after a while but trying to schedule around everything is a challenge for just the meds alone not including airway clearance. My Dr has me spacing out the daily big three and probiotics so am more ‘rigid’ when it comes to meals and eating. I find I do better when I take meds with food even if just something light. I do have my meds all entered into my phone so I get a reminder to log which helps with tracking everything.

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@sheila7a Wow, I can relate - when I started the Big 3 they were spaced like that and it was making me crazy. Oh yeah, and working in airway clearance in between. Yes, I know what the "ideal" dosing schedule looks like, but I had to live in my very real world that included a spouse, adult kids, including a daughter with a toddler and a perilous pregnancy, volunteer commitments... The doctors who are telling us this complex schedule to keep must assume we have nothing else to do with our time.

I have talked before about the pulmonologist's excellent RN - she was who I always spoke to about issues. Although the doc was experienced in treating NTM, he was a crusty old guy, set in his ways, who wasn't easy to talk to - a little of the Dr. Deity attitude, if you know what I mean.

Several weeks after starting the Big 3 (after a couple months clearing Pseudomonas first) we took a break, went to stay in a favorite condo for a week. I was having nausea from morning until night from the "spaced out" meds, worse when I tried to huff cough. When I realized the @#$%^& infection was keeping both of us enjoying our time, I called her.

Her advice - "You have to deal with this for the next 2 years. Although it may not be ideal, take your meds all at once before bed. You can sleep through the worst of the nausea. In my experience, this will make you more likely to stay on the regimen. People who are miserable 24/7 often quit."

Wow! Did that make life easier. Later when I switched docs, both the new pulmonologist and the ID doc said, in effect "We want you to take the meds, and not quit. We know you have a whole "other life" besides MAC. The meds cannot work if the whole thing is too much and you quit. So you do what works."

That kept me going, and I have now been off antibiotics for over 5 years (still doing airway clearance once a day.)

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