Prednisone

I really hate to keep cataloguing all my aches and pains and weird medical afflictions, but bear with me, just one more time. I’ve been experiencing pain in shoulders and hips that kept getting worse and worse, pain so bad in shoulders that I haven’t been able to sleep very well, flopping from left to right and back again when the pain told me to try the other side, dreaming wild and crazy dreams, not nightmares exactly but just anxiously negative. To counter the pain I’ve been taking higher and higher doses of ibuprofen, as much as eight or nine hundred milligrams a day. But even that stopped helping. So I went to see my primary physician, thinking he might prescribe some stronger pain pills, maybe the Celebrex one of my golf buddies told me was good for arthritis pain. My doctor quickly nixed any pain pills, told me what I had was probably fibromyalgia. No arthritis. No joint pain. No pain pills. Fibromyalgia is muscle inflammation, not joint friction. So he prescribed prednisone, 20 mgs once daily. He assured me I’d obtain almost instantaneous relief. I filled the prescription, took one that afternoon, and slept like a baby. In the morning, although I didn’t quite leap out of bed like a youngster, I was able to get up without the usual moans and groans. Prednisone. I read the side effects of prednisone and nearly fell down laughing. All pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies are so intent on covering their asses that they list nearly every side effect possible . . . to the point of absurdity: aggression, agitation, anxiety, blurred vision, decreased urine, dizziness, fast, slow, pounding or irregular heartbeat or pulse, headaches, irritability, depression, mood changes, nervousness, noisy rattling breathing, numbness or tingling in arms or legs, pounding in the ears, shortness of breath, swelling of fingers, hands, feet, or lower legs, trouble thinking, speaking, or walking, trouble breathing at rest, weight gain. And those are only the main potential side effects. The list goes on to other possibilities: bloody stools, insomnia, excessive sweating, cataracts, bulging of eyes, convulsions, reddening of face, abdominal distension, hives, inflammation of esophagus, fluid retention, peptic ulcers, muscle weakness, vertigo. Whew, that covers just about everything. The benefits of prednisone are great, but the possible side effects are alarming. And all to eliminate the pain of fibromyalgia. Nearly all of my ailments regarding skin problems, psoriasis, squamous cell cancer, and fibromyalgia seem to be related to a wacky immune system. It’s such fun to get old and prone to every medical problem known to man.

Oh, yes, and Happy Fourth of July