|
Dedications:
This
book is being dedicated to my family. Without their love and support I would never have survived this horrible nightmare! It was with their help and through the Grace of God that I am here to be able to tell my story!
I have never written a book before but having put up a few pages about what I have gone through generated alot of emails for me from others wanting to know more. And, so I decided to try my best to put this up for everyone who is interested to read.
I can not Thank my family enough for all their support! My husband Ernie who without him I really believe I would not have survived! My daughter Michele for putting up with me and for not being allowed to be a Child! Who had to grow up fast and help with the housework and "Take Care of Mom!" My son Ernie for being the wonderful person he is! He was the "Man of the House" when Dad was at work and took over on everything including helping take care of his Mom! And, my son Steve who was the Best at listening to Mom when the steroids had her depressed! For putting up with me through the tears and the chats. For being as young as he was when this happened he sure knew the right things to say and how to handle Mom on the numerous times the steroids had her falling apart! I will never be able to thank my family enough for all they did! As you read this, you will see how the depression and the insomnia made me a person that was very hard to be around! And yet....thankfully...my family somehow found the strength to get through it and most of all...to help Me get through it! I was truly Blessed by God when he sent me such a Wonderful Family!
I am only going to put a part of my book here for those who are interested to read.
Space on my server does not allow me to put the entire book here. If your interested
in reading more after reading this..I am going to offer my book to anyone who is
interested. The cost is $10.00 for the book to be sent to you via email and If your interested in receiving a copy of
this by email please contact me...EMAIL DAZYROSE
Be sure to include in the subject line "regarding your book". I get tons of emails daily and
by doing this it will ensure I get to your email right away!
Thanks for stopping by!
I am putting together another bookDazyrose lost 155 pounds-you
can do it too!. This is a Book about how I lost over 155 pounds and have kept it off. It is different from all the other
diet books in that it does not offer you to take weight off overnight but it does tell you how in a year and a half I took off
155 pounds and have kept it off. I wrote this book because I know first hand the heartache associated with a weight problem and
I wanted to offer help and support to others struggling with the problem of being overweight.
|
Dazyroses Life On and Off
Steroids
This
book is going to be very Hard for me to write! In order to put this together I have to relive a most horrible time in my life.
I have never written a book before but will give this every attempt to make it interesting and hopefully not boring...Well..here goes...
"Dazyroses Life On and Off Steroids
This all began for me some approximately 5 years ago. I have always had medical problems...seeing doctors for joint aches and muscle aches,
stomach problems and raynauds and things like this. But in 1994 the problems became their worst. I remember the year well because it also
happened to be the same year my youngest son Steve graduated from high school.
Let me take you back a few years so you can see some of what we had gone through with doctors and my medical problems to see how it led up
to what happened to me in 1994.
Over the past 20 years or so I have had problems with things like..cold weather....my feet turning blue and purple and pain. Diagnosis-Raynauds.
I have also had alot of problems with joint pain and muscle pain and numerous doctors diagnosed this as Fibromyalgia and also Collagen Vascular
Disease. In 1984 we moved to a new area and of course this meant finding a new doctor. My husband came down with Pheumonia and went to the emergency
room since we did not have a current doctor at the time. The doctor that took care of him in the E.R. impressed my husband so much we decided to
have him as our family physician.
We started seeing this doctor when my kids had colds or whenever the need arose. He was a wonderful doctor and seemed like he cared about his
patients. At times during 1984 to 1994 I would go to him for the pain of my joints. A few times during that period-I believe about twice or three times-
he prescribed "prednisone" for me on a 10 days basis. I would be brought up and then taken down in the dosage and only on the "steroids" for a 10 day period.
They helped me tremendiously! But, the drawback for me was the weight I would gain and the depression they would cause. On "prednisone" I could even eat ice cream-
something I can not usually do because of the problems with the pain ice cream causes my teeth. But, on "steroids" no problem...banana splits were tollerated quite well
and I ate a ton of them during the "steroid periods" (hmmm maybe the reason for the weight gain when I think back?)
Approximately January of 1994 I began to get very sick. I had alot of joint problems and alot of pain! It was unbearable! I went to our family physician and told him
of my problems and he wanted at that time to prescribe "prednisone" telling me it was the only thing that would help my problems. He believed that my problems based
on all of my complaints was "Scleroderma" which is a rare form of arthritis that makes the skin become hard and effects the organs. Being that I have had alot of
stomach problems over the years and problems breathing as well as the joint pain I guess is what made him come to the determination. That compounded with a doctor I had
been seeing before we moved in 1984 had told me he thought I was "Smoldering of Scleroderma"-explaining that this meant that he thought this was my problem but the tests were
not pointing to the specific type of "Scleroderma" and therefore until "Scleroderma" definately stuck its head up he would consider me "Smoldering Scleroderma." Anyway,
the family physician wanted to start me back on the "prednisone" telling me that it was the only thing that would help my condition. I declined at that time saying "it makes me
a monster with the depression and my husband will leave me if I go on that again!" I hated the effects that the "prednison" caused me and wanted to try everything and anything
else first! So, he prescribed Tylenol with codine telling me that IF this did not help there was nothing more he could do to treat the pain unless I was willing to take the
"prednisone".
I tried the Tylenol for about a month with definately no improvement. I knew I had to do something to get "Out of the Pain" because my sons graduation from High School was coming
up in June and I had to be "Well" so I could have his graduation party and be at his graduation! So, back to the family doctor I went and told him the Tylenol had no effect. Of course
this meant I had to be ready to accept being back on the "prednisone". So, the Doctor prescribed 10mgs of "prednisone-3 times a day. This time he explained to me that he was going to
keep me on it for awhile due to the pain instead of doing this on a 10 day basis. He explained that my "Scleroderma" required that I take the prednisone If I wanted to be out of pain.
I began to take the "prednisone" and began again to have the "Love for Food" and gaining weight. The depression of course began and so did alot of other problems! At the time I was given
the "prednisone" I was all ready on tagament for my stomach problems, procardia for my "Raynauds" and "atrovent for my breathing".
By the time my sons graduation in June I was all ready weighing in at about 250 pounds (my normal was around 180-190). I had problems walking from weakness, more problems breathing (the atrovent
was not helping.) I remember going to my sons graduation and wondering if I would make it through it! All our family came for his graduation party and I was barely able to move! I also was beginning
to have problems with Insomnia. Things were so bad for me I began to "Refuse" to look in a mirror. I knew I had to be quite a sight! But, not looking in a mirror I had No Idea how very bad I really
was looking! Until about July. I was soaking in a bathtub (we had had our bathroom remodeled and we had a bar put in so I could have help getting in and out of the bath tub since weakness was becoming
quite a problem. I would have to sit on the edge of the bathtub to towel off because standing for any period of time would cause me to feel like I was going to pass out.
Anyway, in July I got out of the tub and began to towel off and instead of dobbing like I usually do for some reason I must have rubbed and I could not believe the excrutiating pain! I ran to the mirror-
I had to know what was causing this horrible pain! To my horror-Marks! All Kinds of Purple and Deep, HUGE Marks! All over my stomach, back and arms! I had no idea these were here! And might not have
due to the fact that I was no longer looking in the mirror! I immediately called for my husband. He came running in and could not believe his eyes! We had No Idea what this was! My horror was that it
was some type of "stretch marks" due to the horrendous amount of weight I had gained over such a short period of time. My husband told me to call the doctor immediately but out of imbarrisment I could not!
My hair was also falling out...I was afraid to brush my hair! Gobs and Gobs came out each time I brushed it!
Due to the things that were happening I decided it was "Time" to let other family members in on what was happening to me. We live in Indiana and my family is in Michigan (3 hours away) so since Steve's
graduation we had not seen each other and I was trying to hide what was happening to me. So, I decided since it wasn't something I could talk about on the phone I sat down and wrote my parents a letter. I was
scared of what was happening to me and in the back of my mind I was beginning to think that I would not be around much longer and I didn't want the shock of my death to hit them without ever having even know I was
sick! So, as hard a letter as it was for me to write I tried hard to keep the spirit of "I'll be fine, but for now...". My parents had to have just received the letter in their morning mail and my doorbell rang.
They had made an emergency trip to my house to see me and to see if there was Anything they could do. I don't think they could believe their eyes! I must have been quite a sight! The sight of me sent them both "Pale!"
I showed my Mother my marks and she immediately went crazy! "You need to call the Doctor, It has to be some kind of medication poisoning or something!" She then requested I show them to my Dad which was really a very
hard thing for me to do! But, I showed him and he could not believe his eyes either! Both saying you need to get to the doctor! I told them-it's embarrising, and probably only because of all my weight gain in such a
short period of time...I was sure the marks were my Own Fault! So, they convinced me to talk to a pharmacist and ask him. We went to the pharmacy and of course I did not show him the marks and he had No Idea I was on
"prednisone" I only explained a stretch-mark type of a mark that hurt at times and he told me to use cocoa butter on them to relieve the buring. I did and it did give some relief. But, the marks became worse! Deeper and
more purple and with the heat of the summer....very, very painful-a burning pain!
This is Where I will End this page. I don't have enough space on my server to put the entire book here to you to read. If, however, you are interested in reading about how I went "Cushinoids" and how we made the decision
to get a "Second Opinion" and what happened the week before Christmas When we went to another doctor for the second opinion and what happened when we went to the University of Michigan and
what has happened since the very last "prednisone pill"...please email me Email Dazyrose and in the subject line be sure to put something like...
"regarding your book" so that I can respond to your email faster. There is a $15.00 fee to receive my book and I will send it to anyone interested via email.
Thanks for stopping by and for taking the time to read my book thus far!
|
