Thursday, January 03, 2008

The slide begins.

I'm high as a kite on Prednisone steroids. Have been for several days. Sleep has helped, but now that I'm sleeping enough, the rest of the side-effects are reappearing.

I have to repeat that Prednisone is far easier on the psyche than Dexamethasone ever was. Dex has pointy edges. Prednisone is smoother. It's like the difference between Maker's Mark and rotgut whiskey. Both can have the same net effect, but on is much more mellow and pleasant than the other.

But now begins the slide. I'm on a Prednisone taper. The dose will begin to diminish starting tomorrow. 80 mg today, 70 tomorrow, and a varying taper thereafter for about two weeks.

I'm ecstatic that they're not just gonna drop me out of the sky like they used to do with Dex. The fall would be devastating. Dex was 4 days on, 4 days off. The Pred has been a full week and the high is a bit extended from my Dexi-days. I wouldn't have enjoyed feeling like I wanted to die for the next 5 days (or so).

I've been a bit off my mark today. Probably just over extension from yesterday because I was about as active as I've been in a month. That was a good thing, but I'm paying for it a bit today. I'm also going to have to watch my eating. I've been grazing to the point of staying full most of the day, and that's a load on my system. No intake a few short days ago. Too much intake for the last two. My pendulum is swinging between extremes and I need to sorta stop it in the middle. Moderation.

Oh, a silly side note. I have to eat a Lorna Doone cookie 4 times a day. Well, that's not exactly true, but I have to take an oral steroid that's suspended in corn oil 4 times a day. It was recommended that I take the 1cc of oil and soak it into a shortbread cookie. So, I get dessert 4 times a day. (No, the medicine doesn't taste bad, and the corn oil is a bit like butter so it's pretty palatable.) Anyway, that's the goofy side of cancer treatment. "Did you have your cookie?"

I wonder if Jim Jones gave out cookies with the Kool-Aide?

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