Friday, January 8, 2016

The Final Countdown

G'Day, All,

Since a lot of goodness has been happening since I last posted, I will share now in point-form:
- I started my final prednisone wean on January 3!

- The hell that is (WAS!), renal colic resolved completely within 3 days of stopping the calcium/D3 supplementation.

- I've been back at the (graphic this time), drawing board and it feels so good.  This latest one is based on a still from a  nature film.  I call it, "The Snow Leopard's Moon" and I quite like the feeling I get looking into that starry sky.
 
- I have reunited officially, deliciously, harmoniously, with The Dragon aka pianist/composer, Bob Boisadan, (who with myself makes for the other half of "Dragon & Rosebud"), and we're already working on new music together again after a helluva hiatis.

-My new nephrologist and I get along just swimmingly.  She is smart, pleasant and sporting some formidable English chops too.  It was she who suggested I ditch the calcium and the highest of fives again to her for giving me back some much-missed chi due to the kidney stone hell that went on for more than two months and whoa Nellies.

Regarding this final wean down from dreadnisone, after getting the doc-ok, (and anyone else out there wanting to try this, talk with your docs first too, please), I'm going from 2.5 mgs directly to zero, but this time, using a system I've never tried.

I came across it last year and it's touted to be kinder to the host than the usual method.  It takes 6 weeks per wean and goes like this:

WEEK 1: Sunday, take the new dose and then the old dose for the remainder of the week.
WEEK 2: Sunday and Monday take the new dose, then return to the previous dose for the rest of the week.
WEEK 3: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, new dose and so on like this until one reaches new dose levels for the whole week.

I have only done week one so far and wow, even one day was a deeply painful reminder of how heavy and hard withdrawal from prednisone is.  Wonderful how we do that blocking out biz...

There will be much digging-deep to get through this last hateful/joyful tapering process and this time, I will not hesitate to take whatever painkilling/chillout meds needed to get through it in all possible style.

No matter how low the chi or mojo reserves get, dig deep I will and when it's done, I will at lonnnnng last, be taking only ONE MEDICATION PER DAY!  (The BP meds, which due to the kidneys, are for life.)

"ONE, TINY LEEEETLE MED, A-AH-AH-AHHHHHhhhhhhh!  (a la "The Count".)

And on that sweet, muppety note, I will now head out into this crisp blue day to walk Poochini here.

+++vibes and extra ones to anyone out there in the prednisone tapering process right now--may the force be with us,

J

2 comments:

StudioSlave said...

Onwards & upwards (& downwards with the meds) it is!
I'll try & be a good agent for said Force(s)
xoxo

Juanita Grande said...

👍🏽💛😘