What Next?

11/2/13 5:30AM
I'm up early while it's still dark, for the first time in over a week.  Since going off Prednisone completely, a week and a half ago, things have really changed.  And quickly.  I've gone from sleeping 7 1/2 hours a night with Prednisone to around 11 hours a night without the drug.  I had no idea what an effect the drug was having on me.  Now I know. And my positive attitude was, I'm afraid, more influenced by the drug than I realized.


Off the drug I stopped writing.  Well not much to write about. Well not much I wanted to write about.  The improvement I had been noticing ceased and reversed a bit.  I am now experiencing some itchiness, not a lot but some.  And the rash on my forearms appears to have increased, On my visit a few days ago to Derm Doc#1 he saw little or no change from the previous visit a couple of weeks prior. Quite a come down from the prior visit where he noted "Dramatic Improvement".  So I've been a little discouraged by this and concerned.

Let me hasten to add that the "Dramatic Improvement" did not come from Prednisone or Clobetesol  (the even stronger drug I was taking prior to Prednisone).  I first noticed the improvement after starting the juicing fast so I think that's what did it.  Now I'm experiencing a bit of a set back, but things never move in a straight line.

There is some good news.  I'm off the juicing, liquid only, diet which I had been on for 35 days.  And for the third day, today, I'm eating solid food.  This is a big deal.  Juicing was taking me over 2 hours a day to prepare the juice plus shopping for the vast amounts of veges and fruits to make enough juice to survive on just a liquid diet.  This was both time consuming and boring once the novelty wore off.  So that's nice and a liquid diet means  a lot of bathroom breaks which is inconvenient if you are out and about.

And it's nice to be able to eat out for a change which I did at a nearby soup and sandwich place.  I got a vege soup and salad. Very nice.

I'm on a new diet all vegetarian.  No animal products.  And I have a list of supplements from the Naturopath that are supposed to block the inflammation which supposedly flared up from going off Prednisone.  All of this is speculation as far as I'm concerned.  Cleaning the gut (through the juice fast) didn't solve the problem, as it was supposed to,  although it may have produced the improvement thus far.

Another change.  I have a new primary care Doc suggested by a friend and well known to others in the neighborhood.  He seems very competent. He took a lot of time with me, although he is very busy. He is no drug pusher and happy to work with the Naturopath.  So a huge improvement over dealing with Johns Hopkins.  Oh and that letter I sent to the Chairman of the Johns Hopkins Dermatology Dept ?  No response. None whatsoever.

So the Adventure continues.  I thought I had sighted land and it was just a matter of time when I'd be safely ashore.  But I'm still at sea.  True, I have a course to sail and do feel I have avoided some of the hidden shoals.  It could be much worse.

The next few days could be highly revealing.  Hopefully, there will start to be some improvement with more energy from the diet and less inflammation with the supplements.
Time will tell. We will see.

Thanks for reading!