I’m continuing with the second installment of “Confessions of a Crohn’s Patient” because it deals with my introduction to the commonly used drug, Prednisone. My next post will be a more indepth look at this medication.

Confessions of a Crohn’s Patient Part II

It of course is ironic that for the first time in my life I had lost weight and weighed less than I had in years. But then I was started on iv therapy; given a drug that automatically causes 20 lbs of weight gain, mostly water. It caused my face to swell, called “moon face,” though I called it “chipmunk cheeks.”

I started noticing bruising on my extremities because of the prednisone thinning my blood and causing me to bleed easily. My hair, which had always been thick and lustrous, began falling out and I lost half of it. When I complained to the doctor, he told me to be glad because he had one patient, who was a hairdresser, who’d lost all of her hair. This I suppose was going to make me feel better. I began having hot flashes, and an insatiable appetite and was eating everything that wasn’t tied down, especially chocolate. My pharmacist, who was fast becoming my best friend, said prednisone had the nickname of the “sweet tooth drug.”

Once released from the hospital, I took 25 pills a day. The side effects of the prednisone were horrible. My mother became very upset and called the doctor telling him she was going to pull me off. He informed her that if she did, I would likely end up in a coma. Prednisone is produced naturally in the body. When adding external doses, the body cuts back on its own production of the hormonal steroid. If the external dose is suddenly stopped, the body goes into shock. So we just had to ride it out

After gaining all the weight back I’d lost, and then some, it did seem to help my symptoms. Eventually the doctor began slowly weaning me back off the drug.

The biggest dread was all the colonoscopies I was having. I hated them. They were painful and demeaning. Finally one day he said he wanted to do another one. I told him I refused unless he medicated me beforehand. “Oh sure, that’s not a problem.” My mother and I were both pretty pissed knowing that I could have been comfortable all that time, but he made me suffer until I asked.

After being weaned off the drug, I continued taking some of the other supplemental pills for a while. And was able to go quite awhile before having to see him again.

But that’s the thing about this illness. You’ll be cruising along just fine yet the symptoms begin to sneak up on you very slowly until one day you’re in a full-fledged flare-up.

…to be continued