Crash Course

5mg was not enough. Not even close.

This was the first time none of my 'tricks' worked. Salt couldn't keep my blood pressure up. Sugar didn't help. More sleep or more steroids didn't help. The adrenal pain did not abate.

I tried to ignore it but last night it was painfully clear that I needed more steroids.

I took 2mg to start.

Nothing.

Then another 5mg for a total of 12mg that day.

The adrenal pain improved by about 60% with that. Which was a nice break. Finally some relief.

Although I was up in the middle of the night hunting down potassium for muscle cramps and thinking, 'Hmmm I wonder if this means my potassium levels are off.'

The fatigue seems to be better this morning but all I've done is get up and sit. The dinner dance is tonight, I doubt we will make it. Poor hubby will be doing the biweekly grocery store run too unless I dramatically improve soon.

The adrenals are a dull ache and it worries me that I can't banish it. How much prednisone do I need?

To recap...

Crappy taper for asthma in March.

Suppressed my Hypothalamas-Pituitary-Adrenal-Axis.

Took me about 2 months to wean off steroids. From March through early June

But I did wean and I was off steroids.

Was fine for June and July, some 5 day burst dosing each month for asthma and adrenal symptoms with illness.

I was fine. Doing great. Working out hard. Losing weight.

August marked a long slow slide to hell. Had to stop working out, no energy and from here exercixe eventually became a problem in that it was suddenly too 'stressful' for my 'princess and the pea' body.

Saw endo. Got super stressed about it and had a mini crash after the appt. Did a 5 day burst as a result in early September.

Seemed to be fine until....

I 'crashed' about 5 days after that due to a 30 min elliptical work out and 2 hours of raspberry picking. BP 90/60.

Been on steroids ever since, mostly 5mg or lower. One brief uptick in dose for asthma flare, but right back down to 5mg.

Weaned down to 2mg.

That didn't go well.

Bumped up to 3mg.

That wasn't going great but I was trying to power through.

Encountered some strenuous emotional stress.

And tanked.