More Steroids, More Blathering

I decided to try 5mg yesterday and am convinced it was the only thing keeping me upright. Wow. Probably should've taken 10mg, given I was so tired, I was near tears when it became apparent I would not be able to rest and regroup before work.

Steroids also helped my stomach a lot. Soothing inflammation? Random adrenal quirkery? Who knows?

So far, this morning is better yet and I don't think I'll take any steroids today.

Two signs steroids were the right call: Despite steroids, I had no appetite and ate nothing, not due to the GERD as my stomach had improved at that point, but adrenal appetite suppression. This is what makes me think 10mg would've been a better dose, but, you know me, I'm the reluctant druggie.

Two, my sense of smell was insane. I wanted to claw my nose off my face. OMG.

The hubby used hand sanitizer and I made him leave the room. He washed his hands and I still could smell it from two rooms away so I napped with the blanket over my head. Except, the scent of my deodorant made me want to shave my armpits with a vegetable peeler just to get the smell off me. Then this lavender scent thing I bought for the bathroom began bothering me (and I love lavender!) so I put it in plastic, shoved it in the linen closet under a bunch of towels and I could still smell it through the door. I had to hold my breath and give it to the hubby with instructions to get it out of the house. I hear our garbage can smells awesome now.

The first 5mg dose and I no longer entertained a second career as a drug sniffing dog.

I called my GI doc only to find they have disappeared. So now I have no GI doc and rapidly escalating GERD. They took my stomach polyp and ran. Ha. I can't make this stuff up.

The secretary flat out told me insurance won't approve Nexium twice a day. So I begged for just 10-15 extra pills I can take on the bad days to be prescribed by some physician I've never seen. Meaning, nothing will probably happen. I did make an appointment with someone else sometime later this year, which is the 'earliest' appointment. Ha ha ha. I can't stop laughing sardonically.

The longer I'm a patient, the less impressed I am with specialty care. The pulmonologist only sees me when I'm well, they're way too over booked to absorb me into the schedule when I'm sick, so the ER actually provides primary care for acute asthma. Same deal with the GI doc. If anything goes wrong, they aren't available and it falls to the ER or possibly my primary care doc to try and muddle through. Crazy.

I'm becoming more and more a fan of a good family doctor.

(No I'm not going to the ER for stupid GERD, I'm just making the point that specialists fall short in their care coverage. A lot. I'm baffled as to why this is the predominant care model because from what I can see, it's a lot of money and it doesn't work so well for acute problems.)