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| Me, in and out on a steroid taper |
A steroid taper is slow. I started at 80 mg. per day, stayed there for a week, then dropped by 20 mg. to 60. Today I dropped to 40 mg. and hopped in to get checked by Dr. Oncology. She was sporting a perky new haircut and was tickled to receive a compliment, one of many so early in the day.
All my vitals looked good. The lungs moved air fluidly, without wheeze or other issue. I need to start my steroid inhaler again– apparently being able to distinguish between pneumonitis and asthma is important for tracking progress going forward. The plan is to stay the course on the taper, although as one drops into the lower levels, the body sometimes balks at having to rev up its cortisol production. Call it laziness, call it inertia, we all know it’s tough to start the engines after they’ve cooled.
The plan: drop to 20 mg. next week, schedule a scan to see if there’s been resolution, then ease back in to the immunology. Right now, that looks like late August, although I hinted that I’d be happy to start a week sooner. (She did say I could start once I was down to 10 mg. of prednisone per day.) But, true to her Dr. Oncology-ness, she said only that we would be continuing to be really nice to my lungs right now.
Then I was free to go.
Our old stucco house is being painted right now. Because it’s stucco, old, and covered in lead paint, I’ve been banished to an Airbnb at the foot of one of our local volcanoes. So I’ll go out an a constitutional– all uphill to start. I sleep better after a little daytime sweat. Here’s hoping you get some sweat into your life today, too.
Cowabunga!