Gearing up for my second appointment

I'm off to the doctors again to hopefully sort a medication change.

I was very lucky with the first doctor I saw she was a lovely sympathetic female doctor who listened to what I had to say, took on board the little research I had done in the area and admitted that although she had not heard of the condition she would do her research into it and find out some more. She took on board what I had found out about treatment (again something I know a little more about now!) and prescribed Fluoxetine 20mg (Prozac) once a day.

Although this does seem to have taken the edge off a bit it's not taken it down to a level that I would be happy with and I've still got the physical symptoms which are getting me down especially the food cravings, weight gain and bloating.

So some recent research has thrown up this article to me
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2011/1015/p918.html

It is a wordy research article but it's well referenced and sums up treatment options well as their success rates in the small number of studies that have been done.

One treatment option that seemed to stand out to me was the idea of taking an SSRI (such as Prozac) once a day and then doubling the dose during the luteal phase (ie the two weeks before the period is due) so this is what I am going to ask to try if possible. It makes sense to me to do it this way due to the way SSRIs treat PMDD so hopefully the doctor will agree with me.

The only problem is the only appointment I could get is with the other female doctor in the surgery, as the previous doctor is fully booked and then on annual leave for a few weeks, and unfortunately I took my last Prozac yesterday so quite desperately need to get the prescription refilled, this doctor sent my other half and I for fertility tests (ie blood tests and sperm count) and because out results came back fine refused to refer us for further testing as we were still quite young (29!) and I had already had my son and that if we carried on trying for another year we might conceive (at this point we had been trying for 2 and a half year!) unlike my most recent doctor who referred me straight away to the gynaecology department at the hospital to get the tests done!

So understandably I am dreading being told "it's just PMS," or "I'm sure it's not that bad!"

Anyway I will update more on the appointment later. I'm still feeling rotten especially the bloating I hate going up two full dresses in a matter of days and the tiredness is really getting me down but I've done my last night shift until Saturday now so with two days rest I should be able to regroup and update the sections on this blog starting with treatment options!

Sorry I have been so negative and down I did not want this blog to turn into a poor me blog but I guess for two weeks out of four it will be! I will try and be as positive as possible!