{"id":381,"date":"2008-11-12T13:17:35","date_gmt":"2008-11-12T17:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everwild.net\/blog\/?p=381"},"modified":"2008-11-14T15:27:25","modified_gmt":"2008-11-14T19:27:25","slug":"provigil-end-of-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everwild.net\/blog\/2008\/11\/provigil-end-of-trial","title":{"rendered":"Provigil – End of Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I transition from trying Provigil<\/a> for two weeks to taking it every morning indefinitely. It passed the test. Not with flying colors, but certainly well enough to facilitate a seven-hour trip to Roanoke on Monday, leave me with energy when I got home, and not feeling completely annihilated the following day. Today’s the ultimate pass-fail for Monday, though; the crushing exhaustion usually catches up with me the second day following an excursion. <\/p>\n

I haven’t had any adverse side effects on Provigil, and although I can tell it’s in my system, it’s not uncomfortably intrusive. My appetite has changed, but is neither eradicated nor amplified out of control. Provigil does make me a bit … hmmm … happyhappyHAPPY (!!) when it first kicks in, but this seems more a psychological reaction than it does physical; I don’t feel amped out of my skull on amphetamines and driven by that mustmustMUSTcleaneverynookinthehouse compulsion. I do exercise caution in that first hour. I’m not too keen on post-exertional malaise sneaking up and catching me unaware. Awareness is the Fibromite’s best friend.<\/p>\n

As of yet, I haven’t been able to find any research on whether or not Provigil causes serious long-term damage, and I will continue searching, but I’m not giving up this medication without a fight. I still slog — it’s NOT a magic bullet — but I don’t feel as if I’m trudging uphill everysingleday<\/em> and getting nowhere. On Sunday, I even challenged Jon to a game of Scrabble — got my tush handed to me (on the fancy<\/em> china, no less!) — and never once felt lost or befuddled.<\/p>\n

It’s nice, the possibility of thinking and writing from a clear mind again, or the ability to read more than a book a month (not counting craft and hobby books, which fall under “picture books”). Maybe I won’t have to keep notes about the notes I keep. :)<\/p>\n

It’s nice, this not having to pretend I’m hopeful.<\/p>\n

A caution if you’re considering taking Provigil: it’s not FDA approved for Chronic Fatigue or Fibromyalgia and your insurance company may refuse to pay for it. It’s expensive ($75 or more a month; I take 100 mg daily), but not ridiculous (like Lyrica), and — my opinion only — is more effective at what it does. FDA approval could be a curse, driving the cost up (as was the case with Lyrica) and rendering it inaccessible to almost everyone who might need it. Next, Provigil doesn’t reduce<\/em> pain. However, I find not having to constantly resist the accumulation of pain and fatigue makes a difference in how I perceive<\/em> pain. <\/p>\n

On some days, it’s enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I transition from trying Provigil for two weeks to taking it every morning indefinitely. It passed the test. Not with flying colors, but certainly well enough to facilitate a seven-hour trip to Roanoke on Monday, leave me with energy … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[109,91],"tags":[103,105,94,152,104],"class_list":["post-381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-fatigue-personal","category-fibromyalgia","tag-chronic-fatigue-syndrome","tag-cognition","tag-fatigue","tag-fibromyalgia","tag-provigil"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgAui-69","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everwild.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everwild.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everwild.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everwild.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everwild.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.everwild.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":423,"href":"https:\/\/www.everwild.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions\/423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everwild.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everwild.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everwild.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}