But I Just Came Off It!

"I think you need a course of steroids" "Like, need?" "Yes, need." "Fine."

Me and preddy have had a rough relationship. A little more time together than was good for us I think. I've actually lost count of exactly how many courses of prednisone I've done, but on average I believe it was about 2 per year since I was diagnosed. I'm guessing I've done between 15 and 20 courses of it since I was 12. Thats NOT good. 

As a young female just starting out junior high or middle school or whatever you want to call it, my first  course of prednisone was traumatic. It made me healthy, don't get me wrong. And I felt better on it than I had the entire previous summer. I even chose it as my treatment path, it was either that or 3 months minimum of nasogastric tube feeding (I'll explain that later). But holy crap, prednisone was rough at age 12. 

I had the most veracious appetite. I would come home from school and literally eat bowls of cereal or soup and food until I was full, which, took forever and never felt quite satisfying. So naturally, my weight ballooned upwards, I put on 30lbs in about 3 months, my cheeks puffed out and I was horrified at my appearance. At 12 years old, this really was the worst thing that could happen to poor adolescent me. After I finally finished the last of the pills, I was free! But I relapsed into another flareup only 10 days later. I spent the next several years with my Crohn's trying to avoid prednisone as much as possible.

As I got older, my reaction to each course of steroids changed. Now instead of getting extremely hungry, my mood is more effected. I become quite manic, taking on huge projects (why do you think I've started this blog?), not sleeping, being irritable and hyper. This impacts my relationships with people I care about, it affects my ability to work and learn due to my lack of concentration, and my less than desireable amount of sleep just throws me off completely.

However, now I realize that it's temporary, and I value being able to participate in life by feeling well, than caring about silly aesthetic side effects. My looks return, my mood stabilizes, my relationships recover. But I can't rebuild any of that if I'm still sick.

Comment below with any of your experiences on prednisone!