QAD, and pill treason

My left hand and wrist are so weak and unreliable that my at-one-time reliable innovation of doing the right hand by placing the nail clipper on my knee and pressing down on the lever with my open left palm no longer works well. The left wrist often wobbles under the pressure, resulting in a torn fingernail on the right hand. So I implemented a change I had been thinking about for a while, namely, to broaden the base and eliminate the wobble. I nailed the clipper to a small board that's over a foot long. I put it across my knees and clip without fear:



I have a lot more difficulty swallowing pills of late. When I first was diagnosed, I used to swallow as many at a time as I could, which was, I'm guessing, about 10. Now I have trouble swallowing even one pill. They often go down, hover near the esophagus, and then come back up. I don't have much trouble swallowing food, just pills. I cannot tell you how many times I have picked a pill up off the floor to try again. Yes, I know it's unsanitary, but I figure it makes my immune system stronger.

When I started taking the Flagyl, it made me feel kind of bad. Not Herxheimer bad, just toxic. And then I caught a cold from my kids. So I gave myself a little break and decided that for the duration of the Flagyl, I would only that the essential pills. These were:

1. Namenda - so that I don't laugh like a maniac at every tiny provocation


2. DHEA - to pump me up


3. Quinine - to reduce night muscle cramps


4. Low-dose Naltrexone - an experiment


5. Three Citrucel caplets - to keep the Evil One at bay, since Namenda is constipating

I also have a calendar reminder every other day to take a couple of tablepoons on mineral oil. This anti-Evil One system seems to be working out well.

The 'temporary break' in taking so many various pills has become permanent. So now my regimen looks like this:

Regimen as of 051128, with many items stricken in October 2005
5 g creatine powder in water - es, bedtime (3 weeks on, one week off)
50 mg riluzole twice daily - es (stopped circa Feb. 10 2005, resumed 4 August 2005, stopped again after two months)
10 mg Namenda (mimentine) once daily before bed - es
Prescribing Information (with contraindications) for Namenda
3600 mg fish oil (1296 mg EPA, 864 mg DHA) - es
400 units vitamin E - es
100 mg DHEA - es
1 Garden of Life Primal Defense HSO Probiotic formula caplet once daily - es
2 Mannatech Ambrotose Glyconutitional Supplement capsules once daily - es
vitamin C 2000 mg - wf
1000 mg flaxseed oil - es
600 mg co-q10 - wf
multivitamin - wf
grape seed extract 300 mg - es
green tea extract - es
acidophilus - es
super oxide dismutase 2000 units - es
Alpha Lipoic Acid 200 mg - es (may have caused rashes?)
Acetyl-L-Carnitine 500 mg - es
Sublingual B-12 dots 500 mcg - es (may have caused rashes?)
325 mg quinine - es
To deal with constipating effect of Namenda:
3 Citrucel caplets - es
2 TBS mineral oil every other day - es

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es = empty stomach
wf = with food