Better Day, But Weaker In a Way—Legs—Steroids
It paid off relaxing and listening to my body last night. By 9:00pm I felt much better and that headache went away. I’m pretty sure it was a headache you get when your blood pressure goes up. As I say, I’ve really never had trouble with high blood pressure other than when certain medicines or discomfort bothers me.
DId I mention I accidentally ran over my dog yesterday? Well I did. She ran off. I can’t find her. I am sure she is dead. She was over 14 I think. I don’t really know as she was a stray in 1997. In any event, I felt good enough at 9:00pm to get up and walk around the yard calling her. She never came. I’m sure she ran off and died. I hate it. I just hate it. There’s more to this, but not for this journal.
Today my legs still feel very very weak. I tried exercising a few times and I cannot do near what I was doing earlier. I am nearly positive it’s still those steroids. I talked to my vet. That sounds funny I know, but I do get information for him. I’m conversing with him because I have a setup with him with my horses. I traded him something for ensuring my horses are taken care of when I die, disabled, etc. So here I am and he’s just checking in on me. We’ve always been friends, anyway, and he knows a lot about meds and how they affect humans. But he told me something about how you feel worse coming off of steroids. It was something about how I’m not getting as much of some thing that I was before. I can’t remember if he referred to some things your body naturally makes and things the steroids do, but whatever, it made me make sense of how I’m feeling. Not only are my legs weak, but today my ankles, knees and feet are really swollen. Of course, I’d sat up at a table for a few hours.
So, at 4pm, after sweating from humidity….and steroids..I took a second shower and got all powdered and relaxed. I put on clean sheets and I’ve just piled myself up in a nice clean bed with my “stuff” (eg. laptop, bibles, books, journals, calendars). I’m such a nerd. But I felt I needed to put my feet up. Swelling is slowly getting better, but still there.
Right now I have a potato baking in the oven. I plan on smothering it with lots of butter, cheese, cream cheese and maybe even some salt and pepper. I don’t usually season a lot but I will make it real tastey. I’m fat and happy with swollen feet.
I’m adjusting to this weird numbness. It’s still yucky and no fun, but one can adjust if they put their mind to it. You just have to accept it, embrace it and say “now what?” I’m learning how to handle my functions differently. So be it. I still think I will be better in the future. I know I will be stronger. I intend to do PT once I see the neurosurgeon. Of course, I’ll let them decided but I think PT will do me good. I will get stronger. And I know, I must be patient and know that it will take time to get off of the steroids.
Tuesday doc said to cut back from the 4mg 3x day to 4mg 2x day for a week. Then down to just the one 4mg 1x a day for a week. Welllll, that was Tuesday that I first went down to 4mg only 2x a day. I have decided my “week” will be 5 days versus 7. I may be rushing it yet one day, but I’ve decided this Saturday will be my first day at only one 4mg….1x day. I will do that the next 4 or 5 days and I should be off steroids sometimes week…Wednesday maybe. Of course, they’ll still be in my system, but they will be less and be getting lesser. Now when I exercise I won’t just be trying to maintain what they are destroying. They obviously beat me as I have not maintained. It’s horrible to have no quad muscle. You can hardly get up from sitting down somewhere and it is a scary feeling.
One final comment: I’m drooling over walkers. Yes, walkers. I have my eye on this one I saw at a local pharmacy. It has wheels, brakes, a seat, and an optional basket. I’m going to get one for weak moments. At 50 many are having a second childhood and looking at sport’s cars. I’m looking at walkers. heeeeee.
Filed under: Regular News and
I’m so sorry to read about your dog. I lost a dog a few years back, and it was just terrible. In my case, I was at an IMF seminar and my brother was supposed to be taking care of her. He got drunk (he’s a loser) and supposedly left a door open, and she was never seen again. It’s heartbreaking to lose a pet, I know.
Those steroids are evil. You can get adrenal insufficiency if you’re on them long enough. I use xanax to sleep when I have to be on steroids. I took them for over 4 years in some pretty big doses, and I still haven’t recovered yet. In fact, I have a cataract and osteopenia from them! Watch the blood sugar, too. Ugh. Steroids.
Thanks for keeping up your blog.
Beth