WEEK FOUR: 4MG
It’s been another interesting week. Let’s jump right in.
My Partner
My partner never had her period this month. As I mentioned above, she’s 50, so menopause is stalking. Nevertheless, she has never missed a month as long as we’ve been together, except during pregnancies.
It does seem like a strange coincidence that as soon as she began rapamycin she missed her first period in decades. And this on top of the other changes that I mentioned above. We’ll see what happens going forward. She did take a pregnancy test that was negative.
For this week she went down to 1mg because she’s taking an anti-fungal or an issue under a toenail. We decided together to shift her down to 1mg instead of up to 4mg as had been the plan. Our thought was that 1mg would be low enough that any obvious drug interactions might be minimal, in which case we would stop rapa altogether until the 45 day treatment span was over.
We did look at webmd.com to see if there were any registered drug interactions between the two meds and it said there were none.
We haven’t talked about what next week might be. I suspect she’ll keep it low for a few weeks. Then we’ll evaluate what’s up and make the choice that seems best.
To close the loop, thus far there have been no side effects from the rapa, or the rapa plus the anti-fungal. It appears she just skipped her period as there was cramping etc, but no blood, and now things are chill again.
My Dog
I’m convinced that my dog is experiencing what one of our members has described as a “state of euphoria.” According to his reports on this site, he experienced this only when taking 20mg doses. Those doses may have included grapefruit juice, I can’t recall.
Considering that my dog is 44lbs and taking 3mg rapa, that might align with a 180lb man taking 20+mg.
In any case, the bottom line is that my dog loves rapamycin. She is more active. She’s more spunky around other dogs (she used to shy away, but when she was young she liked to provoke other dogs, which she is doing again now). Even her face gets more puffy; like the fur of her face is poofed and she’s making intense eye-contact more often.
We’re both convinced that she’s happier. Her higher level of activity seems obviously to be better for her, as it gets her up and moving, engaging and being engaged. She’s also more social around us, choosing more often to sit next to us for petting rather than sitting across the room.
We have noticed no obvious side-effects in our dog as a result of rapamycin. I am paying attention though.
I should say I have noticed more skin-tags on the dog lately (not sure of the scientific name for these). They are listed on this site’s list of side-effects for humans. It’s hard to tell whether they were there for my dog before or not, considering you know, all the fur. I’ll keep an eye out and see if I keep noticing more.
(Does anyone know if skin tags correlate with ill health? Are they a side effect that should lead us to lower the dose or stop dosing?)
My Side Effects
I continue to notice side effects of various sorts. I’m not sure if they are caused by the rapamycin, but it’s strange to have so many strange health issues all of a sudden upon beginning rapamycin when I’ve never had so many before.
Last week at 3mg I had an extreme sinus headache one morning. I linked it to trying my wife’s face cream the night before, which I rubbed into my forehead and around my eyes. It’s the OneSkin face cream, which by the way she loves.
As I say, I linked it to that cream, but now I wonder if it might have been rapa connected. I don’t feel like trying another experiment to see if I can coax my sinuses into a splitter of a headache, so I’m sorry medical science; this will have to remain in the realm of conjecture.
I did have more side effects this week though, after 4mg.
First, I got a very red pair of eyes. I saw one of our members mentioning this on our side effects thread. For him it was pink eye. I let it ride through the day. The one eye got clearer while the other kept getting more red.
My partner had some prescription anti-bacterial eye drops from an issue last year. The drops said one drop three times a day for several days. I put one drop in each eye once. That cleared it up.
Was it bacterial? I’m not sure. What I’m sure of is I have awesome eyes. I have never had pink eye as long as I can recall. I’ve never had eye issues of any sort, not with my actual eye health. So this was weird and noticeable. I was glad it cleared up so quickly. Perhaps that means the eyes were just irritated by dry winter air, or dust? Perhaps. I’ll pay attention and let you know in the weeks ahead.
Second, another eye thing. In the few days after taking 4mg I got a very twitchy eye. This does happen to me when I’m under extreme stress and not resting well. It’s like the Bugs Bunny cartoon where something outrageously stressful happens and the character’s eye just starts twitching uncontrollably.
This was weird, first because I haven’t experienced this in many months although it is something my eyes do, and second because I’m not aware that I’m under that much stress. But it is Christmas time and I’m having trouble with an employee so yeah, maybe it’s not related to rapa.
Third and lastly, I woke up on day 5 after taking 4mg with what I swear looked like a very slight rash on both of my forearms. Like very slight. I’m not inclined to share pictures, but suffice it to say it was so slight it might have been dry skin or even a too hot shower for too long. Still, I’ve been in this body for many decades now and this caught my attention as out-of-the-ordinary.
A strange thing about these side effects is that I haven’t gotten the same one more than once so far.
Mouth sores in Week One, but never again. Zits in Week One but never again. Headaches some weeks but not others. Hot flashes in some weeks but none this week. Now eye issues, twitches, sinus issues, and a slight rash, but never before.
I’m a very healthy person with a largely drama-free record of such things. I’m usually just fine without any of the above.
Future Dosing?
I’ve been wondering if I should take a rapa-vacay (vacation). So far, I’m undecided.
One option would be to take a week off and then jump back in at 2mg or 3mg and see where things lie.
A second option would be to increase the time between doses. If the average half-life of rapa in the human body is 2.5 days, I’m not convinced that I’m close enough to 0mg rapa on Day 7 before taking another dose. I do dose with Olive Oil, so I’m getting, what, 35% more rapa than otherwise? So maybe I should go 10 days between doses.
A third option would be to remain at 4mg a week for a few weeks. Considering that I had classic rapamycin side-effects in week one at 1mg (mouth sore and pimples), maybe I’m more sensitive to rapamycin than average. I’ll have to look back, but I think I got hot flashes at 1mg as well.
A fourth option, forking from the above, would be to revert to 3mg or 2mg for several weeks, following the logic that if it’s affecting my system then it’s working, so why push it.
A fifth option would be to press on toward my goal of 5mg-7mg, which is where others on this site have landed—people of my age, gender, and approximate weight. This would follow the logic that perhaps these effects are related to the kefir I happened to start drinking the same week I began rapa (tbh, these aren’t classic kefir side-effects), or to the dry air, the increasing cold, the seasonal stress, or the germs I come into contact with at work.
I haven’t yet decided. My next dose would be two days from now and Christmas is less than a week away. My inclination is to not press ahead to a higher dose just yet. I’ll let you know what I decide.
Season’s Greetings
Today is the first day of Hanukah. Also the last week of Advent and the last day before the solstice. After the darkness comes the light. It’s always darkest right before the coming of dawn. Be well
