This journey hasn’t been easy. The last time I wrote about my prednisone was when I was hoping to taper easily to the lower dosages and reach my maintenance dose within a week. Well, that didn’t happen. After my second day of 30mg I started to develop temple pain again – in other words I hadn’t been on the higher dose long enough to suppress my immune system from attacking my temporal arteries. So I had to go back up to 40mg for a few days, the last dose that controlled the symptoms. I searched the web on tapering and weaning of prednisone, and it sounds like this isn’t an unusual occurrence. My body is apparently very sensitive to dose changes (surprise, surprise – it certainly is with all other meds). So I decided to slow the taper down, and use 5mg increments rather than 10mg, and hope that the symptoms don’t return. After 4 days of my second go-round of 40mg, I tapered to 35mg for 5 days, and I am now on 30mg again, with no apparent resurgence of symptoms, yet. I’m trying to stay positive…. I’ll stay on 30mg for 4-5 days, then drop to 25mg, see how that goes, and then, FINALLY, I’ll drop to 20mg.
What other prednisone side effects have I had? On my return to 40mg I experienced a strong return of vertigo within two hours of taking the dose. Whew, a real shaky day. Luckily it abated more quickly this time and by the next day I was back to just slightly dizzy, needing only a small dose of meclazine. Speaking of meclazine, this is the first day I haven’t taken a small amount and so far so good. Not that I feel “good” yet, but I just feel a bit “off” rather than fall-down dizzy. The profound weakness of two and a half weeks ago has also mostly resolved. I am starting to take walks, weather permitting. My walks aren’t as long or vigorous as they were before all this started, but I am slowly building that strength back. My blood pressure is continuing to stay low - so low, in fact, that I had to back off on the increased meds I started three weeks ago. I’m sure my meds will still need some tweaking as I continue to taper. My blood sugar has done well, most of the time, on my low glycemic diet. I’ve had two 2-hour readings that were above the limit set by my doc. I’m learning more about my body and about carb-containing foods by experimenting a bit, seeing what works and what doesn’t. I’m still steadily dropping some weight, which is wonderful. I experienced some episodes of GERD during the first two weeks of therapy, but that resolved with increasing my dose of Aciphex (a wonder drug!!) to two a day.
What other side effects do I have? Chipmunk cheeks, of course. I’ve watched the little pads of fluid grow in my face. There are pads parallel to and in front of my ears running down the side of my face. Then there are the puffballs at my jowls, running from the apples of my cheeks down to my jaw and which curve slightly under my chin. Between those fluid pads there is a vertical, finger width depression. Pretty strange. I wonder if they will fill in…. Knowing what to expect has made this more interesting than distressing. I may not like it, but I can’t do anything to stop it, so I might as well get used to it.
My moods have definitely been variable, and enhanced. It’s like me, but exaggerated. When I’m irritated, I’m really irritated, and quickly. I want to strike out, NOW. But knowing that these reactions are drug-induced has made me very cognizant of those feelings, and able to control them, most of the time. Sometimes it just pops out, and then I feel badly that I’ve blasted someone with negativity (most often my husband). I told him that it sometimes feels like bees are buzzing around my head, and that when those bees are disturbed it is like killer bees wanting to get out and attack. I’m not sleeping very well (never been a great sleeper – now it’s worse), and that enhances the irritability even more. I tried taking a low dose of lunesta a few times and it does seem to help, so I may be using that more often while I’m trying to get more balanced. I hate that I have to take a medication to deal with a side effect of another medication, but that is modern medicine for you!
As you can see, I’m hanging in there, and actually improving. So I’m going to keep my positive attitude going for now, and update again in a few weeks.
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