Prednisone & the Bearded Guy

Today:

Cycle of Sleeplessness

Appointment with Dr. A

I make Pitcha

February '09

The Nutritionist

Prednisone & the Cycle of Sleeplessness

From early on in taking this med, I would awake around 2 a.m., alive, wired. This would happen about once in 7-8 days. But, not slowly from a dream, or disturbed by a passing noise, I would rise fully 100% awake and hungry. What followed was hours up, eating. All my ususal sleep aids, lavendar essence, hot milk, reading, in any combination, were no help. The truly strange part about this to me is that the next day, instead of being even more worn out, I was fine, or as fine as a I could be. I still couldn't walk the stairs without a "breather," but my mood, my focus, my attention span were all unaffected.

However, there has been a significant change: Yesterday, for the first time I really lost whatever composure I had. The nasty side of the drug is beginning to take effect. MyMay and I got into a real name-calling argument. We are usually so accommodating to each other! Worse, I didn't feel bad about it at all. I felt really angry and justified. This is not good. (P.S. We made up.)

Now, the following could be just me, but I'm blaming the prednisone. Yesterday, I met with Dr. A., my pulmonologist. But first, I had to wait in the waiting room for an hour and a half. I've written about the waiting room before. Remember the TV? Well, yesterday the room was filled with the usual Brooklyn mix, old, young, multi-culti, multi-hued people reading, watching TV and talking on their cell phones, when a tall, bearded man walked in. Wearing a short-sleeved cotton shirt, shorts and sandals, very Park Slope.

The guy waltzes in front of the TV, which is set about 6 feet up, hanging from the wall, announces he's lowering the volume, changing the channel, "if no one minded?" It happened so quickly, no one could say anything.

Now, there is a delicate balance in a waiting room. No one's happy to be waiting, everyone's sick and frustrated and in this case, everyone had made peace with One Life to Live or whatever soap was playing. I exchange tsks and looks with the other women around me. Some people have a real need to announce their presence to the entire world.

Then one itsy, bitsy, frail little lady, gets up and say, "Hey, I was watching that." Bearded-guy says "Oh, I guess you didn't hear me when I asked if it was OK?" Like are you kidding me? How snotty are we? So, he adjusts the volume, still lowish, and the channel and the itsy lady sits down and all is good with the world.

A few minutes pass. We all settle in. And then, Bearded-Guy gets a phone call on his cell. And he proceeds to speak in a basso profundo so full that everyone in this waiting room can clearly hear every word.

I couldn't contain myself: "Do you mean to tell me," I raise my voice from the back of the room, "that you lowered the volume on the TV so we could all hear your phone call???"

Now, I'm under 5 feet tall. The guy is about 6 something. Thankfully, he laughed.

Yeah, I'm not a happy camper these days.

February 2009

In February, I see I took a course of prednisone, per Dr. A. It started at 100 mgs, and progressed down to 10 over 20 days, i.e., day 1: 10, day 2: 10, day 3: 9, day 4: 9, etc. At the end, I was still sick. I think I saw him again as a follow up and was still suffering from time to time from fevers. This month, also I was on jury duty. Coughing, mucus continued.

March 2009

By March, I think I was referred to a lovely allergist in the city. There were albuterol treatments and inhalants, a prescription allergy pill. By now I was taking Advair and Spiriva to breathe. Patanase was a help. I was taking the elevator to get up and down the Lexington Ave. F Stop to get to work.

During this month, Ted, my brother, prescribed olive oil, garlic & vinegar mix to fix me up. A recipe provided by his ex-wife. More on my brother's natural remedies will be forthcoming. I think in March, too, I had pneumonia and was out of work for nearly a week. But, then I felt better.

More later.