After the mess that was the day after my first Sertraline tablet, I took a break.

I didn’t take any more for a couple of days because I knew I wasn’t ready yet.

Firstly, the severity of the symptoms took me entirely by surprise – I was expecting to feel pretty rocky, but not be unable to stand up without being sick.

The latter requires a bit more planning when you have other people to be responsible for – I’m just relived my bad day was at a weekend so school and clubs weren’t affected!

I used my break (where I still felt off, but it was bearable) to get as ready as I could for if it happened again.

I planned food and shopped – going for quick and easy meals of the ‘just put in the oven/microwave’ variety – so that I can make sure the kids have decent dinners with minimal pressure on me with regards to prep and having to stand upright!

I arranged for family to help out with after school clubs and things, so that the kids don’t have to miss out if I’m not feeling up to driving or anything.

I caught up with some laundry so there won’t be any panics for uniforms or anything at any point.

And I also used the time to go out with my parents and catch up with some family friends that I haven’t seen face to face since I was a kid. (We had the loveliest meal out I have had in ages – very much recommend The Stretton Fox pub if you are ever in the vicinity!)

Not going to lie, I am hoping that some of the horridness was caused by not leaving quite enough gap between stopping one medication and starting the next – if that was so, then the extra couple of days might make a big difference as it’s been longer for the originals to get out of my system.

It would be nice for all this planning to be entirely unnecessary, but we will see!

Here we go again!