mind damping

[miriam_e]

I'd been worried about the effect the medication I'm taking for an infection is having on my ability to think and write. It makes me constantly tired and seems to dull the edge of my mind. But the mind is such a vague, slippery thing that I couldn't really tell how much mental fogging was the medication and how much wasn't.

When I woke this morning I had some startlingly clear ideas that added wonderful stuff to the story so I jotted them down hurriedly, delightedly, gratefully, thinking that I guess I was wrong; that the medication wasn't damping me down that much. It was then I realised: I'd forgotten to take my tablets last night. :(

Damn! Damn! Damn! This comes very close to proof of the deleterious effect of this stuff on my mind.

Oh well. I have to push on anyway. There is an upside: if I can complete NaNoWriMo this year, and if the story is a reasonable one, then in February when I'm free of this stuff, I should be able to accomplish much more.

Comments

Re: Mind Numbing Drugs

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Hi Michael. Thanks for the offer, but it is a relatively new drug, and I'd been told of the side effects early on. I'd simply expected them to fade after the first month or two. And some of the worst did, but some of the lesser symptoms haven't faded. I know this drug reduces production of red blood cells which makes me rather anaemic and that accounts to some degree for the tiredness and lack of reserves. I guess considering the enormous amount of energy the brain consumes (it is a very expensive organ to maintain) then this undoubtedly has an effect on mental function too. Exacerbating that is how skinny I am -- my brain is probably far and away my major energy consumer so must feel the brunt of the effect. I've been trying to eat more (under orders from my doctor) but I've never particularly liked eating to begin with, and now these drugs make food positively quite unattractive to me, so haven't been terribly successful. I'm still just eating twice a day as always. Oh well.

Only a few more months and I will be back to normal. :)