Okay, I know you are going to ask my why I didn’t wait until nothing is going on in my life. Life does not work that way. My life is always under change and there is never a perfect time to adjust something.
That being said……
I did use the steroid eye drops the first day I tried the Restasis. All I can say is WOW. I have barely used additional tear drops at all. The second day I used it without the steroids. It did not burn. In fact, it was almost smoothing. I will be honest though, there is a like a dull ache now, but not consistent. It has been a week and I have only used fake tears a couple of times. Mostly due to allergies.
But, after speaking with endocrinologist last week, I have decided to go down another step in my prednisone. I am at 2.5 now. This is the last step before going completely off. Next Tuesday, my husband has labs at the VA and Quest is just across the street. So, I told him I would fast with him and go get my labs for the endo.
Usually, when I have stepped down a level in the prednisone, it has been pretty consistent. 1 st week – I am fine. 2nd and 3rd – lots of extra coughing attacks. 4-6th, body slowly calms down. I have been at 5 mg for over 10 weeks now. I should have been off. My body did not calm down until last week. Maybe it was the time change, I don’t know. Last week was a good coughing week.
Here it is day 2 with the step down and I have chills, exhaustion, diarrhea, nausea and the ucks along with coughing attacks. I did not expect the withdrawals symptoms to be so dramatic or so early this time around in the process. The endo. was concerned over my adrenal glands not responding. This is a real concern with the early signs of drama on my body. I hope I can hold out until Tuesday. He said that once he gets the results, he will advise me as to whether I need to go back up or continue to get off. Optimally, getting off would be good. But 5 mg a day will not hurt me as long as I monitor my health aggressively. He did advise me to up the B-12 dose during the first two weeks to help with the stress.
At the 25th anniversary of church this weekend, people who haven’t seen me in a while commented on how healthy and good I looked. I told them that is the problem with what I have. Looks are deceiving. I did take my portable oxygenator with me and I did use it during service. There was just too many colognes flying in the air.
Overall, I am feeling pretty good. I have lots of labs to get done in the next four weeks before I return to the pulmonologist. Let’s see if it will happen. I think I will go for the echo cardiogram on Friday.
Either way, whether my health is good, poor or down right ugly. God has allowed me to continue to work and wake up everyday. So, everyday has been a good, no matter what happened during it.