Archive for March 20th, 2011

Stuck in Hibernation Because Stress and Lupus Controllled My Treatment Negatively

Starting Over Again On Prednisone…

Stress Overuled It’s Intended Course of Action Don’t Let This Happen To You

It’s been quite sometime since I posted anything regarding my treatment my new-found disease Lupus and it is with good reason that I haven’t. Last I wrote I had sat down on the side of my road and watched as others who have Lupus carried down that road with their heads held high and their hearts filled with the positivity I had vowed to take this disease on with. That hasn’t changed but a lot has changed as I began my treatment of a 40mg Prednisone taper that well I think its been a good month and a half of and were I where I should be Monday I would of dropped to 5mgs and been almost done with the taper. It is this that I want to write about and share with you but know I’m sharing with you something that is not the norm for most folks but it’s a lesson learned and one I feel needs sharing for those of you who are on prednisone to treat your flare ups or to start you new journey to a better way of living flare free as possible.

When I started at 40mgs it was a wild ride through the psyche – you’re on the verge of your own skin ready to jump at any point because everything you feel, have felt or didn’t realize was as serious to your body becomes very real. It rises to the surface like oil would rise on water and in doing so you tend to be more outspoken, more on edge and more adamant about the things you want or don’t want to deal with. We all have things in our lives that stress us – to think that you can remove all your stress is like believing you will hit the lotto tomorrow and your Lupus will magically go away as quickly as you were told you have it. One thing that is the most important thing to remember about Lupus is that you have three culprits that are most detrimental to your life and longevity of your life. Those three things are Stress, Illness and Sun – your little outlaws’ catalyst that keeps it thriving and driving its way through your body at warp speeds and once its on a rampage that’s when you will be given a treatment of prednisone. Dependent upon where you are in your disease, how long you’ve had it, how long you’ve known you had it and your relationship with your doctor are the key factors in what will be decided upon as far as how many milligrams of this med you will start at. I had never been treated for my Lupus so this was the first step in my doctor and myself to discover how to start our course of action – first we do the prednisone which was a high dose due to fact there was a lot going on inside this body of mine and it needed a strong kick in the ass. After I went through this which as I would be going through it the medicine would be eliminating the inflammation and taming the flares or putting them to sleep – after two weeks I would begin the Plaquenil 100mgs 2 times a day – this is a drug that if you can take is a wonder drug for Lupus patients as my previous entries has spoke of.  I unfortunately couldn’t tolerate the drug – I don’t handle drugs that have sulfur or sulfate in them and I was horribly nauseated for the entirety of time I was on it. We tried to cut the amount of the dose in half however due to my body not liking this drug the nausea wouldn’t go away; however, within 24 hours of stopping the medicine the nausea left as if it had never been there. Now trust me when I tell you I wanted very badly for this drug to work but this was not your normal nausea and this is a drug I would of been on for the rest of my life. This is one of the best drugs in regards to treating Lupus due to the minimal serious side effects and the fact that its not an auto-immune suppressant drug type. When I speak of serious side effects what I refer to is how the body processes this drug, ie…it doesn’t threaten your organs as much as the other drugs do – the worst case scenario is that it can cause damage to your vision with long term use that is irreversible.  Losing your eye or losing your kidneys/liver – you see my meaning?

Read the rest of this entry »