Solu-Medrol Hell...

Well, nothing could have prepared me for the toll these IV steroids have taken on me the last couple of days.  The nurse came Saturday to remove the IV after my last dose in the morning.  At that point I wasn't feeling horrible.  I was a little swollen... I was bruising easily, I had experienced a little difficulty sleeping and felt a little nauseous sometimes, but it wasn't anything I couldn't get through. The last couple of days have been a completely different story though.

I have started sweating profusely... not just a little bit, like dripping with sweat all day long, even when sitting at church or at my desk.  And heaven help me if I have to actually get up and DO something, it's like I'm running a marathon.  Here's what I looked like after trying to grocery shop...

I'm extremely hungry, but nauseous at the same time.  I literally want to lay across my desk or on the floor or on my bed because I am so exhausted, and I am dizzy with intense migraine type headaches. On top of that, I look in the mirror and see a monster... I feel so swollen and puffy.  I'm now on a reduced oral dose of steroids, still quite strong here at the beginning, but which will taper off over the next 12 days.

Last night I slept a total of 1 1/2 hours.  The burning, stabbing pain in my chest every time I tried to sit or lay down was unbearable, (apparently just a very intense heartburn), so after pacing the floor all night and swallowing an unknown number of ultra tums, eventually around 3:30am I was able to drape myself over the arm of the couch and get in a few zzz's before having to get up for work at 5.

To say I was careful what I ate today would be an understatement.  I stuck to very small portions of the BRAT diet during the day which helped ease the nausea, (mostly just a banana and toast plus an activia yogurt which has helped me with heartburn before), and then when I got home I looked up what else would be ok to eat that would fill me up a bit but not give me heartburn all.night.long. which is my biggest dread for this evening.

I did find tonight for dinner that some rinsed off black and garbanzo beans from a can with some canned shredded chicken and dried parsley is something that doesn't make me feel sick, has filled me up and doesn't seem to have any affect on my heartburn.  I'll probably live off of that for the next week.

I am so grateful for other people with MS who have written blogs because that is where I got the most helpful information the past couple of days.  (I thought I was having a heart attack last night before I read blogs that relayed similar experiences.)  Now if I can just get a decent night sleep tonight without any pain, that would be brilliant. :)