Monday, January 9, 2012

Wanted to Give a Small Update

I had my second Stelara shot a few days before Christmas and so far, so good.  Everything seems to be working wonderfully.  I have been able to reduce the amount of prednisone from 30mg to 15mg since the first shot in Nov.  I have a step down program for prednisone that has me off by the time I have the next shot in March.  I have also dropped from 300mg cyclosporine to 150mg.  When I go back to Mayo later this month there is a possibility that I will either dro to 100mg or even off completely.  This med has a lot of side effects and it is not to be taken for more than 2 years straight.  I have already been on the med since March 2011. 

Last Tuesday (Jan 3) I came off both the fentanyl patch and dilaudid.  I have been dealing with some withdralws, mainly leg cramps and general tiredness and weakness.  The leg cramps also come from dropping the prednisone. 

I am so glad that some of these meds are getting out of my system.  I have been living on them for going on 3 years.  I still have some 20+ meds that I take daily that add up to around 45 pills a day.  I still have multiple shots of insulin daily, gel for arthritis, eye drops for glaucoma, etc. 

Still have a long way to go, but there is finally an end in sight now. 

God bless
~Joy and Family

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