The flare that brought me back to him was intense – I ended
up digging out the cane I thought I wouldn’t need again for a long while. The best appointment he could get me for a
rheumatologist? It was seven months out!
(Not a lot of rheumatologists in my area, and since my insurance company
was helping me out and the resulting fatigue was kicking me squarely in the
arse, I didn’t question it or have the urge to look elsewhere)
I was miserable right then, I argued. Can you give me something to tide me over
until my rheumatologist appointment?
Enter Prednisone.
A steroid, enough to take the inflammation away – I was
thankful and hopeful. At 269 pounds, I was hoping to continue my weight loss
and be well prepared for rheumatologist appointment.
But then as he was writing up the prescription, he said the
first words that have seemed to seal my fate: you will gain weight with this
drug.
What? Surely it would be a temporary thing, and I will be
off of it when I get what I need from the rheumatologist – or at least that’s
what I thought.
But as I started on it, I began to hear some of the same
things from the people in my weight watcher meeting and around me: Prednisone
will make you gain weight.
But I was feeling good! I could walk! I went on vacation
with my parents and I rarely needed my cane.
But what I didn’t pay attention to was that my appetite was out of whack
along with a few other things. I was
having such grand success with weight watchers that I was tracking my eating in
my head and everything.
That was my downfall – Once I was with my rheumatologist, he
told me that I could not quit this steroid quite yet – I had to be ‘weaned’ off
of it.
Fast forward to now.
I am 305lbs, depressed, and angry. I wonder truly if it was the steroid
or was it the people who kept telling me that this steroid could do this. Regardless, I have come to the end of my
chapter with the steroid – I am now out of it and currently relying on the
methotrexate and Enbrel that I have been prescribed. The last intention of my
rheumatologist was that this was to be the last of it.
So far I am feeling a little tender everywhere, and hoping
that he will not put me back on it. Now that drug influence is gone, it is time
to get my mind back on track – I hope.
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