In the Don’t Know What You’ve Got Till It’s Gone Department

OK, so image is not really related. But you have to admit it’s a good match for that header!

So now we’re stepping down steroids. Joints hurt. Head hurts. Skin hurts. Congestion. Hard to wake up in the morning. Armpits stink again.

No more bursts of order-creating energy. No more color-OCD. No more springing out of bed pre-dawn. I seem to be fine with being messy as opposed to the almost obsessive straightening I was doing at the height of the steroid dosage. 

On the other hand, I’m able to sleep again. My bones are supposedly losing less calcium. There’s less strain on my heart, my blood sugar should be settling down, my eyes are less puffy. I will soon be able to stop taking pantoprazole (a proton pump inhibitor which protects the stomach from the prednisone) . . .

Stepping down because apparently stopping steroids cold-turkey is a bad idea. As Mayo Clinic puts it:

If you abruptly stop taking prednisone or taper off too quickly, you may experience withdrawal symptoms, including:
• Severe fatigue
• Weakness
• Body aches
• Joint pain
• Nausea
• Loss of appetite
• Lightheadedness
• Irritability or mood swings

In addition to withdrawal symptoms, not tapering prednisone properly could worsen the symptoms you're being treated for. And if you're taking prednisone for a long-term condition . . . not tapering properly could cause recurring symptoms to flare up.

Prednisone is like cortisol, a hormone naturally made by your adrenal glands. If you take prednisone for more than a few weeks, your adrenal glands decrease cortisol production. A gradual reduction in prednisone dosage gives your adrenal glands time to resume their usual function.

So now the step-down of prednisone begins, 2.5 mg at a time, two weeks at a time. Weaning my body off of this handy but problematic outsourced inflammation-fighting platoon. Got to get back to fighting my own fight.