(The Prednisone Pendulum, coping with it.

[Guest guest]

In Arthritis Today, there was a great article about the prednisone

pendulum.

My husband's family ( his mom and dad, brother, and aunt) visited us for

a week last March. At the time, I was taking 40 mg of prednisone every

day and feeling awful. I was sleeping 2 hours per day and feeling lousy

the rest of the time. Jim's family is very negative, anyway, and I just

couldn't cope with them very well. The medicine caused me to go CRAZY.

I took their negativity for about 5 days, and then, one day, it was just

too much. I scremed louder and longer than I have ever done in my

life. My in-laws were sitting outside and I was screaming so loud that

they could hear every word I was saying.

It was the Prednisone. Anyway, they left a couple of days after that

and our relationship has been very strained ever since.

I get upset about what happened a lot and wish that I could have handled

things differently. Jim is very understanding and says that it wasn't

me, it was the medication.

Anyway, I made a copy of the 4 pages and highlighted the areas that were

like me on the medication when they visited and am going to send a copy

to each one. I'm hoping that, maybe, then, they will understand the way

that I act.

I'm normally a very optimistic, happy person and can handle hearing a

lot of negative. I just listen and don't say anything. But, when I was

on so much medication, I just couldn't handle very much at all. It was

a time that we didn't need to have ANY visitors.

But, I have this need to want everyone to like me and with the strained

feelings since March, I'm hoping that this article will help them to

understand me.

Delaine