It's been a few days over seven months since I had to start taking prednisone for temporal arteritis. The usual length of treatment is one to two years, so I'm either on the downswing or not even close to the midpoint. I'm keeping a positive attitude (not easy on prednisone) and hope that I only have about five months of treatment remaining.
How am I doing? Not too bad, all things considered. My immune markers (sed rate and C reactive protein) are normal. I've been able to diet control my prednisone induced glucose intolerance so that my A1C is also normal. I've lost about 30 pounds, because I've cut out sugars and almost all non-vegetable-based carbs from my diet. My afib is being mostly controlled, albeit not well controlled, by the increased doses of flecainide and metroprolol – the episodes, which occur every week to month, last from a few seconds to only a few minutes (except for the one on Mother's Day). My cheeks are still puffy, but since I've lost so much weight only I can tell how puffy they actually are. My waist still has the prednisone belly, but again, with the weight loss it isn't too obvious to others, especially in my loose clothing. I am having episodes of gastric reflux, a few of which lead to aspiration, e.g., I am coughing the gastric contents from my bronchia. I have to sleep inclined to decrease those episodes, but they occur about once a month. The aciphex is "working" because I'm not having the awful heartburn, and throat burning that can accompany reflux, but my valve (lower esophageal sphincter) doesn't seem to be working very well due to the prednisone. My face has some fuzzy hair growth, especially on my chin, above my lips (mustache), and by my ears (sideburns), but thank heavens it isn't dark growth (except for a few on the chin and above my lips). While that hair is growing thicker, the hair on my head is thinning – and I don't have very much head hair to begin with! I don't have any problem with blemishes on my face; I have actually seen improvement in my mild rosacea. My arthritis and allergies remain much improved.
My moods are still rocky. I have hair-trigger emotional responses, but much of the time I can "catch" them before they erupt because I know they are prednisone-induced. My memory is spotty, especially for individual words, with no warning when it will happen. I just can't remember the word – I can describe the word and even google it to find it, but it is missing until I do. It is similar to a "senior moment" but enhanced, and it really bothers me.
I've made it to 12.5mg/day. It took forever to get there, but I had gone through several months of high-level stress while I was trying to taper. Stress increases the need for cortisol. I'm a bit more stable now. My doctor just gave me the go-ahead to start tapering to 10mg. When I get there my immune markers will be tested again, then I will start for 7.5mg, and so on. If everything goes well I might be off by late Fall (e.g., one year of treatment).
I have yet to actually feel as good as I did before I started on prednisone. However, I have redefined what "feeling good" means to me, so there are many days now when I say I feel "good" (by my new definition). I wonder if I'll ever be able to go back to the old definition and really feel good again….
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