I can't say I'll miss you.
So, for those following my fun and exciting health woes, I am pleased to say that I'm no longer in prednisone's painful grip. My kindly-old-man/quack of an ophthalmologist (even though he has a ridiculous amount of experience and is extremely well-respected) got his ass chewed out by my neurologist.
I needed a neurologist (generally the main doctor one sees with MS, like a lupus or RA patient sees a rheumatologist), and my ophthalmologist went to the trouble of calling a bunch of colleagues, making a list of recommendations, then calling and interviewing each one to find who he thought would be the best doctor for me in this area. Wow.
So the neurologist got ahold of my medical records from the ophthalmologist and called him and told him he was ****ing up. In my original post on this subject, I mentioned that I was really iffy about starting the steroids, since the only large-scale study on the subject showed an INCREASE in the risk of developing MS and an INCREASE in the risk of recurrent optic neuritis if oral steroids were used in approximately the dose I was given. But I trusted the old fart with his 300-page-long C.V. and took the pills I was prescribed.
The neurologist, on the other hand, shit a brick when he found out and insisted that I be immediately taken off the steroids as quickly as possible to prevent any further risk. So, under close medical supervision and while doped up to the gills to offset as many steroid withdrawal symptoms as possible, they took me off the prednisone entirely.
Hurrah! I'm no longer farting blood!
Did I mention I developed corticosteroid-induced diabetes, too? It was cured within 24 hours, however, and I'm back to my perfect blood sugar numbers again.
I'm through the withdrawal now and feeling quite a bit better, albeit with the assorted unpleasantness that goes along with a fresh MS diagnosis.
Aside from the extremely expensive ($2,500 a month) and extremely important (massive reduction in the frequency of exacerbations) injectable "CRAB" drugs, there's a triad of drugs that pretty much all the MS patients get. Baclofen for spasticity, Provigil for fatigue, and Neurontin or Lyrica for nerve pain.
We didn't want to start the whole triad all at once (too hard to figure out what was causing side effects), so we're going with a new drug after each two week period. Started Baclofen about two weeks ago -- amazing! The stiffness and muscle spasms are GONE. Then started Provigil yesterday -- holy crap, I can make it through the day without taking a dozen naps! As for the Neurontin or Lyrica.. that's next and I already have a good idea of what to expect, having been given some leftovers of these drugs by my Dad (prescribed for diabetic neuropathy -- they didn't work for him). I had amazing relief and very few, minor side effects.
I'm already back to maybe 2/3rds of what I was prior to The Big Health Crisis.
--K
So, for those following my fun and exciting health woes, I am pleased to say that I'm no longer in prednisone's painful grip. My kindly-old-man/quack of an ophthalmologist (even though he has a ridiculous amount of experience and is extremely well-respected) got his ass chewed out by my neurologist.
I needed a neurologist (generally the main doctor one sees with MS, like a lupus or RA patient sees a rheumatologist), and my ophthalmologist went to the trouble of calling a bunch of colleagues, making a list of recommendations, then calling and interviewing each one to find who he thought would be the best doctor for me in this area. Wow.
So the neurologist got ahold of my medical records from the ophthalmologist and called him and told him he was ****ing up. In my original post on this subject, I mentioned that I was really iffy about starting the steroids, since the only large-scale study on the subject showed an INCREASE in the risk of developing MS and an INCREASE in the risk of recurrent optic neuritis if oral steroids were used in approximately the dose I was given. But I trusted the old fart with his 300-page-long C.V. and took the pills I was prescribed.
The neurologist, on the other hand, shit a brick when he found out and insisted that I be immediately taken off the steroids as quickly as possible to prevent any further risk. So, under close medical supervision and while doped up to the gills to offset as many steroid withdrawal symptoms as possible, they took me off the prednisone entirely.
Hurrah! I'm no longer farting blood!
Did I mention I developed corticosteroid-induced diabetes, too? It was cured within 24 hours, however, and I'm back to my perfect blood sugar numbers again.
I'm through the withdrawal now and feeling quite a bit better, albeit with the assorted unpleasantness that goes along with a fresh MS diagnosis.
Aside from the extremely expensive ($2,500 a month) and extremely important (massive reduction in the frequency of exacerbations) injectable "CRAB" drugs, there's a triad of drugs that pretty much all the MS patients get. Baclofen for spasticity, Provigil for fatigue, and Neurontin or Lyrica for nerve pain.
We didn't want to start the whole triad all at once (too hard to figure out what was causing side effects), so we're going with a new drug after each two week period. Started Baclofen about two weeks ago -- amazing! The stiffness and muscle spasms are GONE. Then started Provigil yesterday -- holy crap, I can make it through the day without taking a dozen naps! As for the Neurontin or Lyrica.. that's next and I already have a good idea of what to expect, having been given some leftovers of these drugs by my Dad (prescribed for diabetic neuropathy -- they didn't work for him). I had amazing relief and very few, minor side effects.
I'm already back to maybe 2/3rds of what I was prior to The Big Health Crisis.
--K
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