Exactly what I've predicted - Power of 35mg of prednisolone!
My aches are all gone ... gone ...... gone .... (at least for today, or tomorrow ... or whatever ..)
This is the power of prednisolone, with great power come great responsibility - you can't be on high dosage of preds for too long, eventually, you will feel sluggish, psychosis (like trying to tie my cats' tails together), mood swings, weight-gain (NO GOOD!), moonface, camel hump, risk of bone loss, diabetes and trust me, this list is not exhaustive!
Prednisolone is used to bring down inflammation, that is good because no inflammation means no ache BUT long term use will eventually mask any infections / underlying conditions. Meaning, let say you have an infection, but because you are on prednisolone (which suppressed inflammation), you don't get a fever. However as the infection worsen, you will eventually get a fever and this can be dangerous as infection was discovered at a much later stage.
In a lupie case like mine, whenever there's a sign of flare, the doc will up the prednisolone significantly to suppress immune system activities. After all, Lupus is caused by an over-active immune system.
Normally, steroid-sparing drug will be in place to take over slowly from the prednisolone as a replacement while tapering off. Bad news? I don't have one. I was on Azathioprine (Aza) once but my white blood cell hated it and started dying off (or stopped producing?)... resulting in low WBC. So, I was taken off Aza and was on preds and hydroxychloroquin.
This time, apart from my aches, low grade fever, kidneys are being attacked! My 3 previous urine tests were positive for protein, with the latest one +2! Also my BP recorded at 150/90! I've never had high BP before!!!!! Low yes, but high, NO!!
Other than the above tests, my previous 24H urine test in Nov-09 was 0.33 g, value is abnormal but not high alert. Still, if it reached 0.5 - they make need to take a little bit of my lovely kidney to look under the microscope. I've just submitted another 24H urine today, let's just hope it is a o-kay! After all, I do feel well now...
About the 24H test, I am pissed as the Dr. was supposed to call me back if it is abnormal BUT she didn't! I did know the value was 0.33 (requested a printout from the counter in Dec-09) but I didn't know it was abnormal as the Dr. didn't call! Why didn't I call the Dr. instead? Well, reaching them is like getting lucky with MAGNUM consolation price ...... not easy!
Sometimes you get really good doctors, some simply suck big time. I remember receiving a call from a Dr. (different one) just to tell me everything is okay! Big clap clap!
My motto for today - "I feel good ... la la la la la ..."
1 comment:
oh dear, i'm not happy to hear about the protein in your urine. from now u have to be careful with your diet, I think. did the doc advise u on what to eat or not to eat?
anyway, I'm glad to know u're feeling good now, even if it's drug-induced...LOL {{{hugs}}}
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