Posted by NickD (209.83.94.153) on March 12, 2000 at 10:44:07:
In Reply to: just a few questions posted by Carroll on March 12, 2000 at 08:38:48:
My neuro finally prescribed prednisone as a last resort a number of years ago, as I recall, it was 60 mg, 20 mg three times a day for three weeks saving enough for the taper, this may be okay if the CH's would completely disappear, but no way, I did some experimenting and learned that just taking 5 mg on a Monday, and 5 more on a Thurday, this would greatly knock the edge off, informed my neuro on this, he got angry at me and insisted I take a adrenal level test, I was on this program for over a year, well the test came back normal, he shook his head, and say okay, since then I dropped completely off prednisone except for an occasional pill, this medicine is anti-inflamatory and your body develops an immunity to it, after a bad day yesterday, I finally just took 5 mg and an hour later my nose broke loose, think I killed a box of tissue and had a good nights sleep, I also have to take two Tylenol sinus pills with it, weird, I also get a bad sinus headach after taking prednisone, another doctor I see agrees with this practice, now I just take this combination when I leave on a business trip and so far it has worked, no CH's, this is against all prescribing methods as my doctors load me up with the stuff at powerful doses for a short time, when I get back in two or three days, off the medications again, I feel this way, my body is not developing the prednisone immunity and have my oxygen at home to handle the rest, this works for me, and maybe not for you, but the point I am trying to make, it's not only the medication, but how you take it that can make a huge difference to how it works, this adds for factors to the equation and unfortunately it's a trial and error process, pyschotropic drugs are in a class by themselves, many, you just cannot hop on or off, but my success with these drugs has been all negative, I did break down three weeks ago and hit the amitriptylene bottle, but tapered off, couldn't believe it, in only one week put on 8 pounds and had problems buttoning my pants, four days of one english muffin for lunch, and one cup of Total cereal took care of that, wish someone would invent a medication without side effects. Another very bad thing about the trial and error period is allowing a sufficient dry out time between different medications, one neuro got me into a rut, but the one I see now, says I know it's going to hurt, the last medication has to get out of you system before we can try a different treatment, this was several years ago, but during these dry out spells, I have had to learn to deal with CH's without running to the pill box, my O2 and ice are good backups, and even hopping into the car and leaving the area has been a huge factor in fighting these things, I had to change my life, job, and other factors, sure I can make big money working in downtown Chicago, but screw that, now I am looking for a home even further out in the woods at places that I have visited that taught me, this is where my CH's go away.