Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I don’t want to complain too much about how awful it is to have to take prednisone, considering that it’s probably saved my life (in combination with the other disease meds) at least three times in the last (has it really been that long?) fifteen years. But I’m very frustrated with taking only 5 mgs of the damn drug and still having these side effects: pimples, lots of pimples; huge (and I mean huuugggeee) appetite, and not for good foods, but for bad thinks like chips and candy and muffins and donuts and anything else that contains terrible ingredients like sugar, white flour and oil; and “water” weight to the tune of about fifteen pounds (I’m just sayin’ it’s water to make myself feel better).
But, on the plus side, I’ve got so much more energy now that I don’t even feel like the same person I was even three months ago. I can now go all day long and do a whole bunch of things, include my “exercises,” and not want to collapse on the bed in total and utter exhaustion by the end of the day.
So I’m blessed that drugs even exist because they save me from the Wegener’s every day. But I’m also cursed because the treatments are always so much harder than the disease. I can see the fat, cottage cheese on my legs; I can hear my inner voice telling me not to eat that last Timbit; and I can see the roll of chubb on my hips that makes all my clothes look that little bit more awkward than they did with my usual roll of chubb.
And in 3 solid weeks of exercise, I’ve lost and gained the same 2-5 pounds. However, I’m still 3 solid weeks away from my 6 week goal of trying to get in some sort of shape, so I’m ever-hopeful that in two weeks, the super-fancy disease doctor will kindly let me stop taking the prednisone, so I can at least make some sort of attempt to curb my diet along with my good choices of making my body move every day.
It’s all a battle, isn’t it?
Oh, and I’ve decided my song for this summer is “I’m Always In Love” by Wilco. It’s the perfect summer song. Now you? What’s your perfect summer song?
I’d say it’s a three way tie between “Vacation” by the Go’s Go’s, “Holiday” by Madonna and “Crazy in Love” by Beyonce.
Oh and of course “Hot Fun in the Summertime” by Sly and the Family Stone. Bass line on that is killer.
Say What You Want by Texas. Great for car drives. And Wheat Kings by the Hip. For beer drinking on the deck at the cottage, a little Blondie.
Song of this summer? Crazy by Gnarls Barkley. Song for any summer? Seu Jorge’s verion of David Bowie’s Changes. Acoustic AND in Portuguese — SAY WHAT?! That’s some good shit right there.