And The Week Winds Down
Just in case you think I'm just laying around sleeping most of the time and listing a house or two in between naps, I thought I'd show you what I've been working on. Here is Beauregard modeling a premie cap. Yes, he is on top of the tv, the light was better.
The little pointy things on top of the hat are three dingles. I don't know what else to call them. I just like them and I put them on most of the baby and kid hats I make. For some reason I think a little kid or a baby just look cuter with dingles.
And the photo shoot was going just fine until Mom (Ms. Lana Lyn) decided Beau needed some directing. She was saying things like "Sit up straight, Look happier, Smile, etc" Beau was not very happy as you can tell by his expression. Nor was Mom when she realized he wasn't paying any attention to her.
Her intense little face says she'd like to climb right up to the top of the tv and SMACK him! But she couldn't, so she didn't but I did notice there was quite a little discussion going on later. I ignored it as I didn't want either one to think I was taking sides.
And I put almost EIGHT inches on my Emily scarf over the last couple of weeks. Here's what it looks like:
SIGH! Yes most of my inches are in that large pile of frogged spaghetti and my Emily scarf is back where it was when I started two weeks ago. I noticed an unfixable error right where I started. Oh, believe me, I worked and worked at trying to fix it without having to frog but in the end I realized I wouldn't be happy. Those eight inches were so pretty I'm just going to have to redo them. So the spaghetti has been rewound and Ms. Emily is back in her bag until I can bring myself to start again and be MUCH MORE CAREFUL!
So onto the Med update - Okay, going from 10 mg of steroid to zero was a mistake. My dr thought it might work, it was worth a shot. Hense, sleeping and feeling really, really crummy. So I'm back on 10mg until Friday. Then we go to 7.5, a week later to 5, the week after 2, the week after off.
I had an ultrasound yesterday (my dr was concerned about the swelling in my neck). It came back fine. And I finally had my Pet Scan done today. If you want to know a place NOT to got to have things done, email me privately and I'll be happy to tell you who and why. Won't know the results of the pet scan until Friday.
So now that I'm back on a higher dose of steroid, I feel better. I'm a little irritated my adrenal glands didn't even TRY to kick in but hopefully the more gradual taper will fool them into getting back to work.
One thing I have noticed (and no one else in the whole world would probably notice), I think my face is getting smaller! Well, my cheeks are not as tight, the splits on the inside have healed up, and I'm having trouble focusing my eyes. When I started to puff up, I had a couple of days where I had trouble focusing so I'm hoping this is the reverse process.
I'm off to try to get my little secret project finished so I can get it delivered.
posted by Susan @ 8:27 PM
3 Comments:
Susan, I'm glad to hear that you are on a tapering decrease. Please remember that it is NEVER advisable to suddenly stop steroids. In fact, it can be life threatening in extreme cases and land you in the hospital pronto. It is also advised that when on steroids (corticosteroids) for a length of time that a medical alert bracelet be worn to notify medical professionals in case of emergency...so they know to continue the steroids.
Normally, an adult's healthy adrenal glands supplies about an equivalency of 7.5 mg of corticosteroid daily. This is why it is necessary to slowly decrease and taper at the lower doses to give the adrenal glands sufficient time to realize they need to begin working again and ease them back into their job. When there is a sudden stop of supplemental steroids, the adrenals don't have that *ease back to waking up and working* and may not supplement at all or in time to not cause severe problems.
Think of this as if your adrenal glands have been laying on the couch doing nothing for months. Then they are expected to go back to marathon running without any conditioning (by tapering the dosage downward over a period of time). It just doesn't work out well. The taper period allows the adrenal glands to get back into action by first exercising slowly before taking on a continuous 24 hr. marathon.
Believe me, I DO understand the frustration of these meds. Prednisone definitely has its benefits, but over a period of time the adverse effects mount and my patience with the regimen becomes shorter and shorter. However, no matter how badly I want to discontinue *today*, I know that safety and health are more important....and our adrenal glands need a few weeks to walk before running. : )
And remember, I'm saying this to *myself* too...every day!
You're in my prayers always.
Your Pal,
Shelly
love how you personify Beau and Lana Lyn!
I'm glad you and Shelly have each other to understand so well what each of you are going through. Best wishes for the next couple of weeks to go well for your steroid withdrawal.
Doesn't Lana Lyn know that nothing good ever comes from overbearing stage mothers relentlessly driving their children's showbiz careers? Look at Judy Garland! Look at Shirley Temple (I think)! In 10 years Beau is going to be suffering an eating disorder, addicted to painkillers, and running up therapy bills in the six digits. Please, for her own son's sake, tell her to back off and just be a normal little lamb like all his little lamb friends!
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