I have been pretty miserable for a while now. Saw the rheumatologist, told him I am gradually increasing the Prednisone til I find a level that works. Oh, okaaay. Call in two weeks. If not better, want you to go on Cymbalta. Google Cymbalta. Side effects of the not-good variety. I am confused. Prednisone works, when I am at the correct dosage. Everytime I get there, they have me decrease again, and then when I inevitably have to increase again, it takes longer and longer to get back to that doing relatively okay phase. The side effects at low doses are not bad, and I’ve read that at 5 mg and below, there are no side effects. 5 was working fine for me back several months ago. Then they had me cut back again. Today I increased to ten in hopes of not being in constant pain and sleeping more hours than not. The thing I am confused about is, given what I just said, why do they want me to get off Prednisone and take something with worse side effects? Like the meloxicam, which caused bloating, shortness of breath, and severe back pain. What is the logic behind this? My doctor just seems laser-focused on ‘get off the Prednisone’ and nothing else even registers with him. The only other rheumatologists I am aware of in this area share his practice, so changing doctors is kind of iffy. It’s not bad enough you feel like crap, the doctor just seems to be in another universe or something. Fed up am I. Totally.
Had a really bad weekend, and did not even fire up the laptop for three days. Realized how nice it was to not have any politics evident. I don’t watch tv, just netflix and hulu, so I have been out of the loop. I want to stay out of the loop. It’s too disgusting and upsetting and overwhelming to see what orange gas-bag man and his supporters are doing, and even though I want to be part of the resisting this shit movement, I am ill, and it’s healthier for me to avoid it. When I stopped watching tv, it did not take long to notice how much less frustrated and angry I felt, now even more so with avoiding on -line politics. Let me just read my fan fiction and my crochet and cooking and pretty pictures blogs and let the world take care of itself for awhile. I’ll get back to it when I’m better.
strangely peculiar 
You’ve got to conserve your strength. I’m trying to have less news time, too. Gets me down too much. It’s too easy to get caught up in wanting to read everything, but probably better to concentrate on what we can do when we can do it.
Absolutely. No TV, with its commercials and sound bites and constant annoyances, was an excellent decision on my part. Avoiding the on-line stuff just makes it better. Life is much calmer and peaceful. It’s a good thing. 🙂
Maybe your doctor doesn’t get kickbacks from Prednisone, but does from the others.
Possible. He commented on how cheap Pred is, so probably no incentive to prescribe it.
Nope. Keep insisting on Pred. If he tells you to take something else, refuse. He can’t make you.
I am going to discuss it with him next week. They CAN refuse to prescribe something, but I don’t think he would do that
Fingers crossed that he won’t.