I’ve been on 1600mcg of Uptravi for 2 1/2 weeks now and it’s kicking my butt. So much body pain, so much joint pain, so many terrible headaches, so much nausea. I’m eating imodium like candy. I’ve been sleeping badly and having a lot of nightmares. I’m kind of depressed too, but I think it’s probably just from feeling horrible all the time so I’m trying not to panic.
BLEAH.
It’ll get better someday.
Librivox’s 11th anniversary is today, August 10th 2016! We had a 6-week drive to finish nearly 200 books in order to reach 10,000 books by our anniversary, and we not only reached that goal easily but we surpassed it by 22 books. We now have 10,022 free audiobooks in our catalog!
Have a look at this thread:
https://forum.librivox.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=61402
Everyone pitched in — book coordinators chased down languishing chapter claims, narrators helped out with books that were lingering unfinished, proof-listeners took on extra work, admins cataloged the finished books, our cover team made cover art for all these extra books, and many soloists put in an extra effort to finish up those solos that were close to completion.
That’s what I did. I wasn’t planning to finish Dracula till December, but I really pushed myself in those few hours when I felt ok (and the house was relatively quiet) and got it done in time to be part of the 10,000! My proof-listener, Mark, managed to get all those long chapters proofed when he wasn’t playing with his grandkids, and Ann cataloged it swiftly.
And here it is, complete with beautiful cover art made by Annise:
https://librivox.org/dracula-by-bram-stoker-2/
Happy listening! Have your brandy and garlic at hand in case you feel faint or you notice a strange mist pouring in over your windowsill…
Oh, I said I’d tell you about a new podcast that I discovered! It has really helped me pass the time on days when I feel well enough to listen to something but not well enough to watch tv or knit.
The show’s website is fairly awkward, so I’ll give you a link to the show archive. Poke around, find something that looks interesting, and you’re in for a big treat.
http://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/search-archive
From the “About” page:
You Must Remember This is a storytelling podcast about the secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century. … [T]he podcast is the brainchild of Karina Longworth, who writes, narrates, records and edits each episode in her home.
This podcast is a heavily-researched work of creative nonfiction. Every reasonable attempt is made at accuracy, but quite often when it comes to the kinds of stories we explore here, between conflicting reports, conscious and unconscious mythologizing and institutionalized spin, the truth is murky at best. That’s kind of what the podcast is, ultimately, about.
To be honest, I started with the Manson series. I needed something really compelling to distract me from the pain, and I binged those episodes straight through over a weekend. Damn. I was born in August of 1969 and I remember hearing muttered conversations about the Manson Family in the early 70s, still. It was fascinating to get such a clear picture of the world in which those murders took place.
And then I started at the beginning of the episodes and worked straight through. Karina has just started a summer season of 6 episodes about Joan Crawford so now I am waiting waiting waiting for every new episode!
Sorry about that long gap between posts again. This year has just been an endless cycle:
New medication. Bad side-effects for weeks. Slowly get better. Feel ok for a few days. Increase dose of new medication. Repeat.
A week and a half ago I finally started the highest possible dose of Uptravi: 1600mcg 2x/day. The side effects have been brutal. Same as in all my other posts, but extra-bad.
At this point I’m ok for about two hours after I take my first dose, and then I get hit with nausea, full-body aches, knee and foot pain, headache, hot-face, and fatigue. The headaches have been better for the last couple of days but the fatigue is worse. Or maybe it’s not actually worse, I just notice it more now that the headaches are better :)
Anyway. I lie in bed all day after that first two hours, just resting. I start feeling better again after about 6 hours, and now I sleep through whatever happens to me after I take the nighttime dose, though the first few nights were bad.
But that’s ok. Uptravi is definitely helping me feel better (when I don’t feel miserable, lol). I have turned my nighttime oxygen down from 3.5 lpm to 2.5 lpm, and I usually forget to turn it on until I go to bed, in contrast to six months ago when I needed it in the early afternoon almost every day. In the morning I can walk slowly for a while without any extra oxygen at all.
So right there, that’s worth all this agony! And the agony is coming to an end. In a month or two the side-effects will be much more tolerable, and I won’t be increasing again and I can just enjoy taking slow walks in the morning without extra oxygen :)
