Thursday, October 16, 2008

Scared

Up until Monday I had been doing very well with my treatment. My prednisone dosage was tapered from 60mg to 10mg, I was enjoying life to its fullest. Monday I had full blown flare up symptoms, and thus my prednisone dosage was put back up to 40mg. As my prednisone dosage tapered I was able to come down to 153lbs. But now that I’m up to 40mg this week I’m up to 157lbs. I must weigh in next Saturday to compete at 155lbs, I watch my diet religiously. Hopefully I can get it under control and start tapering again.

Next week I go to my doctor’s office again for blood work. The doctor is going to see if I can get on 6mp, I’m overjoyed. 6mp comes with a whole slew on nasty side effects, just like Prednisone.

Minor:
loss of appetite
abdominal pain
sore mouth
nausea
vomiting
diarrhea
dark discoloration of skin
itching
rash
Major:
severe joint pain
severe upper abdominal pain (pancreatitis)
fever
unusual fatigue
weakness
sore throat
abnormal bleeding or bruising
yellow color to skin or eyes

I’m tired, I’m scared, and some days I feel great and ready to take on the world. Then there are days like this where it seems that I’m losing everything I love. What is worse the disease or the drugs we use to treat it? Prednisone make me feel normal, too bad it will rot your body from the inside out. 6mp? Who knows…maybe I’ll develop a rare form of cancer while suppressing my testosterone production.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Aaron, sorry to hear you have this horrible disease. I read your response on healingwell about the aloe elite. If only the cure was that simple. I was finally diagnosed in May 2008 with UC. Have been on Asacol, Canasa and Prednisone. Currently in a bad flare and back on Prednisone 40 mg a day. It really sucks. I cannot tolerate the Asacol, which is the same as Lialda, you just take more of it a day. I was surprised that you were reduced from 60 to 10, usually the taper is about 10 per week. I know how scary it is with all the bathroom problems and particularly with the bleeding. However, I am 56 years old and can't imagine how I would have dealt with this at your age. I was partying hard at your age. You will have good days and bad days, and it sure does mess with your mind. One of the hardest things is not having people to talk to about it because they just don't understand how it controls your life. I ordered a book on Amazon "The New Eating Right for a Bad Gut", by James Scala, Ph.D. It has a lot of good information in it about this disease and I refer to it quite frequently, especially when I am feeling like I do right now. It is certainly worth reading. I also recommend yoga. You can just get a DVD so you can do it at home and your friends don't have to know. I know you are an athlete and you get plenty of exercise, but yoga is relaxing. Diet is important, which is really hard when you are 22. Anyway, Dr. Scala talks about all of this in his book. Try to keep positive, I know how hard that can be. I wish I had a magical answer.