(Re prednisone.) Coby, I have been watching how long you have been gone. And noting that your wrists hurt bad. Or good, whichever.
I don't know how to say this without it sounding funny (peculiar) or cheesey or patronizing or one of those gd adjectives, but ~ you have my sympathy. It is hard to even go there, where you are. It's a humbling approach to even get near thinking about it.
I know what it's like to make that deal with the devil to survive. Literally to live.
In about the 8th thru 11th year of taking prednisone, I knew it had to stop. My first attempt failed. So far so good on try number two, but you can't exactly experiment with stopping it during the times I have to take it, and I was preparing to find substitutes for it.
Standard opinion (in my past to present experience) is that there is none. There is also amazingly little medical focus or perhaps even interest in it's side effects. I WONDER if there is little interest in finding a replacement; or if this is simply ignorant perspective on my part. In that 1) it is "chemically impossible", or 2) work on alternative therapies proceeds and is not common knowledge.
My original inclination was to find ways to control my immune system as source. It's where the problem is. Not in stimulating it; aligning it. Chinese medicine, ayurvedic, accupuncture, homeopathy, ~ WHATEVER ~ But start looking for ways to prevent it from creating the conditions conducive to the disease, which in my case are the immune system's hyper-reaction to incorrect reporting about asthma.
Of course my pulmonologists say there is no substitute for prednisone, and even said I may have to take it the rest of my life. What a laugh. NO THANK YOU. I insist on HAVING a life. I will consent to take it to save my life, because MJ wants me alive.
So that's two different subjects really, 1) aligning the body to AVOID needing prednisone when one is able to be off of it, and 2) substituting for it therapeutically if the dose is at a level where that is possible. In my crises states, I would not attempt to wean or stop or replace it. One decides those levels, by basic personal science. Testing, Guessing, Trying, Ow. Experiment and failure take energy, obviously, and a person in these positions doesn't always have that ("energy", yuk yuk) ~ which is why it would be sorta nice if more people in the medical "community" knew more about these things and could help us.
I got zippo. Zip, zip, zippo.
In twelve years of taking the drug. Was never realistically or even perfunctorily warned of it's side effects. Ran around looking for help to learn why these things were happening to me.
I can get angry about it ~ about the circumstances, about the virtual abuse ~ if I think about it, but it's a who-cares now. Onward.
The damage to me is primarily non-bone,joint, organ or healing. It's interesting that there wasn't. Why.
Fortunately, you're not in year four; and you're fore-armed.
So here's something nice I heard today. Sharon, my New Mexico host, was telling us that on Bill Moyers (love that guy - he's sooper cute) Healing And The Mind PBS series, some "place" we're going to find, on the tape, used a process to wean a woman off of prednisone by stimulating her body to mimic the effects.
Now that would be cool. And might buy a person time.
I don't know if other world medicinal approaches to align a person's system can work while one is taking prednisone, as this has not been available to me at those times. But I don't think we should rule out that they might. Also, our insurance here (HMO Oregon) has begun funding these therapies. One might find a way to come to health from within the prednisone whirl.
I guess one could look at the above attitude as not as optimistic about medicine as it should be. It should be that that would be an "of-course"; that will happen.
Again, I don't know that much about your situation; what's available to you in conventional medicine or alternatives; where you are in the progressive treatment of these things; what you expectations are, yadda yadda.
Hey! I survived, and can now maybe look at new things to work on me from this side, and repair the damages. It was maybe just a phase! Uh huh. Yet, in some sense, possibly true.
:o)
Your situation is clearly more painful; but we're twelve years forward in time, too. |
