And so the inevitable has happened.  As I predicted in my blog here, medicines are being stockpiled due to catastrophising, and this panic is causing a national shortage.  Drug manufacturers, the NHS, pharmacies and patients are storing or panic buying drugs in case of a no-deal Brexit.  Why news items have to state that there might be a shortage of medicines I don’t know, because saying this will most certainly lead to a nationwide dearth of drugs.

I only take one medication, Levothyroxine, without which I’d be dead in about 3 months, as I have no thyroid gland.  There’s a shortage of Levothyroxine powder for injection, but as yet no shortage of the actual tablets.  Sam tells me I should start ordering the 25mcg dose more often, even though I only use it twice a week on top of my normal dose  Stockpiling boxes of 25mcg Levothyroxine would then make me as bad as everybody else! However, Sam has an answer for this.  He says that these days it’s every man (or woman) for themselves, and to get there first before somebody else does.

Sad isn’t it?  I slowly grind to a halt without Levothyroxine; I know because I’ve had to come off it before in 2006 to have radioiodine treatment.  After two weeks I was chronically fatigued and was reduced to lying on the sofa all day.  My muscles were too painful to move, I was freezing cold all the time, and my eyesight was blurry.  I had no appetite and didn’t want to eat, yet put on half a stone in weight.  This was all rectified after about a week of taking one little white 100mcg Levothyroxine tablet every day.

I have no intention of becoming like this again if I don’t have to.  So yes, I shall take Sam’s advice and order more Levothyroxine than I need to.  There are many medications that do not cause death if they are not taken, but mine isn’t one of them.  I have to take Levothyroxine if I want to stay alive, because my body does not produce it.  People with a partially working thyroid will be okay in a national shortage for a lot longer than I would.  Anyway, on a purely selfish note, I’ve got a few more books to write yet and I want to be able to move my fingers to type!