Tag: prednisolone

Prednisolone fun.

A funny thing with Prednisolone is one of its side effect is shaking hands — this hits me pretty hard, to the extent that I have difficulty typing on a smartphone or use a touchpad in the morning…

…and pick up a Perdnisolone pill: it’s the smallest of all the pills I take.

We figured with Juli this is probably a bit of practical joke, courtesy of the pharmaceutical industry: they give you a pill that causes your hands to shake so small it’s close to impossible to pick up with shaking hands. It’s actually pretty funny, good one, pharmaceutical industry!

So that little obscure giggle you notice when your pharmacist hands you your box Prednisolone… now you know why.

The stuff I eat and other disgusting details.

Some more on my weight. When I started chemo, my official weight was I think 73.6 kg… around that. Now, 2 weeks in, I am at 77.8 kg.

The secret snake oil here is steroids.

As part of the treatment, I take Prednisolone, a synthetic glucocorticoid, whatever that means. Point is, it does several things:

  • It suppresses my immune system (as far as I understand) — reason for not having the B symptoms any more, and the primary reason I have to take it. (It’s how chemo works… explanation maybe another day.)
  • It doesn’t let me sleep; last night I had 3 hours of sleep. Before that, 5. Before that, 4. Before that, 3. Not much when you should be busy raising your WBC. Basically I wake up at around 3-3:30 like it’s 6:30, and can’t go back.
  • I don’t know if it’s a side effect of the ‘roids, or the sleep deprivation, but I now have a serious shake in my hands. Using the touchpad of the notebook in the morning, not so much.
  • It suppresses (as ‘roids do) inflammation. I might have something in my knee joint — I’ll know when I get down from the big P (which is next week, for a week).
  • And last, but not least, it spins up my metabolism like fuck.

(And it can have some other fun side effects too: depression, suicidal thoughts, mood swings, anxiety, hallucinations, memory loss, and I forgot the rest.)

So to put this in perspective, here is a typical menu of mine nowadays:

  • Starting with a tortilla (or regular) sandwich (ham, cheese, lots of mayo) immediately after waking up
  • breakfast around 9-10: maybe another sandwich or 2, or some cake if there is any
  • maybe another sandwich or cake before lunch around 11
  • lunch 1 with Marti (younger kid) at around 12; for today’s example, pasta, lots of it
  • lunch 2 around 1-2 pm
  • lunch 3 around 3 pm
  • some snacks (maybe cake…) around 4pm, maybe a carrot cake or apple pie combined with the beginning of my walk
  • some more snacks on the way back from my walk — on Wednesday for instance, this meant a half family portion of french fries with mayo; yesterday and today: a Nutridrink (300 kcal nutritional drink)
  • dinner at 6-7pm
  • dinner 2 at around 8-9
  • maybe some night snack (any cake left?), or another sandwich.

So, I don’t do much besides eating, and yes, I digest the whole thing. (No photo.) This results in getting 1-1.2 kilos up within a day easily. Not all days, as you can calculate, but still, nice figures.

My normal weight before falling ill was around 82-85 kilos. Reachable?