Hi Gaugie, you gotta keep me posted, you know. I have been reading up on prednisone and necrosis and osteoporosis and stuff. I can't believe none of my doctors have told me to take calcium and vitamin D, nor have any offered me a bone scan, nor checked my estrogen. Bastards. It turns out the first six months of low-dose prednisone are the worst for trabecular bone (that's ribs and vertebrae). I have been feeling shorter, I had Ben (older son) measure me on the doorway with all the height measurements. I was right in the middle of my high (a.m.) and low (p.m.), so maybe I am just imagining things.
When we finally buy our new house, I think we will have to remove that doorway. It's not a real doorway with a door and frame, either, it's just a sheetrocked opening, so I guess I will have to remove the sheetrock and then how will I make sure it is exactly the same distance to the floor when I reinstall it? Time to start planning.
I had been reassuring myself that low-dose prednisone could not be so bad because none of the doctors warned me that it was dangerous. Hah! Ten mg./day is dangerous stuff. I did find something that may help me with the pain, I had started off taking it at night because I hurt when I sleep, and then Chris read that it is better to take it in the morning because that is when the adrenal glands are most active, and if you take it when your adrenal glands are most active, it is less likely to shut down adrenal production via feedback loop. So I switched to half at night half in the morning, and then to all in the morning, but I was a hurting unit at night. Never getting enough sleep, sleeping during the day after the prednisone kicked in and eased the pain. I just read yesterday some research from Australia that the cytokines which cause inflammation peak in the early morning, and that administration of cortisol at 21:00 "markedly" suppressed the inflammatory cytokines, but not the later early morning rise of endogenous plasma cortisol. I know that prednisone is much stronger than cortisol, but I figured, why not try it, so I took the prednisone last night, and I slept comfortably again. Maybe if I take it at night I can cut back.
Thank God for prednisone, but I have been fantasizing what it would take to get off it completely, and I think I would have to give up law. But maybe not. My research indicates that there may be an unexplored link between the overweight and the rheumatoid, since insulin resistance causes secretion of tumor necrosis factor alpha, which is the inflammatory cytokine that makes rheumatoid so painful. Since I am being treated for insulin resistance, that should help, but I have decided to go all out with changing my diet and lose a ton of weight and see if that helps. |
