Nicotine patch treatment not working so far
I recently learned about nicotine patch treatment from this paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s42234-023-00104-7
I've had chronic fatigue for the better part of 4 years now after a COVID infection. Looking to feel some improvement cause I can't keep living like this especially after having my SSI case denied by a judge. Now I have to wait a year for an answer from the appeals council.
I replicated the same study by taking 7mg patches for 24 hours at a time for seven days. Day 1 I noticed nausea a couple hours after applying the first patch and vomited shortly after, then had constant diarrhea that lasted until day 3. Days 4 and 5 I felt pretty low energy but I chalked that up to the extreme Texas heat. Days 6 and 7 the temps had become much more tolerable, yet I was feeling incredibly lethargic and nauseous.
Day 7 was my last day for this round of patches and at the time of writing this post it's been less then 24 hours and I'm experiencing brain fog worse than I've felt in years and the lethargy and nausea are persisting. My mood is also sour and my temper is shorter than usual but I also had a shitty summer so idk if those symptoms are related to the patches or not.
I feel like I should be feeling better now that the extreme summer heat is gone, but I don't feel as good as I did when it was cool earlier this year.
I've also been taking IV therapy once a week for over six months and missed last week because of insurance stuff (I'm back on it tomorrow). I'm used to feeling a crash if I miss a week, but I was hoping the patches would have their desired effect and I wouldn't even need IV anymore.
So I guess my question is, what now? I read some papers that suggested taking a few days or a week off before starting another round of patches but wanted to get more opinions in the meantime.