Connect
← Return to Prednisone for life?
Discussion
Comment receiving replies
@dadcue my confusion was not about gout but about something you wrote. I was unsure if you had pseudo, gout or gout or both.
You are very lucky that you were diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis about the time that I should’ve been also diagnosed. However, I wasn’t getting regular medical attention in my 30s. It was more about general medical needs being a mom and for my family. But you are also unlucky because they put you on the prednisone which was an acceptable way to deal with the inflammation at that point in time. At the end of my 30s I was receiving periodic injections of steroids for my inflammatory pain with no attention given to what was the source. In my 40s it was about sending me to physical therapy and then by my 50s I was having joint replacements. There was never any attempt made to organize everything under one umbrella. When I looked back, it’s all very clear. Both sides of my family had inflammatory arthritis. But they made do. I am lucky that I observed, and kept pushing to eventually get myself into a place where I am in better shape at 69 than I was at 39.
I believe in food as medicine and I’ve witnessed how clearly that works over the years. My dad had gout and took no gout medicine until his 70s because he did not eat sugar, and he moved his body to an alkaline state by putting lemon in his water. It was that simple he a lot of fruits and vegetables things that include protective agents against gout or pseudo gout. My aunt on the other hand ate a miserable diet, and she suffered every day of her life as she aged. She refused to be disciplined. She refused to control her sugar and acknowledge what was causing her inflammatory condition. Looking back I feel really bad that nobody could help her get to the right doctor and her family wouldn’t recognize the inflammatory gout that made her miserable and made her a miserable person.
Yes, my medical history is very complicated too, and I think it’s because I walked around with the consequences of an inflammatory body for 30 years untreated at its source. I think that most women who suffer with things like fibromyalgia are not getting treated for an inflammatory condition, and the catchall term is fibromyalgia. It makes people feel better that they can have a diagnosis, even if it works against them in solving what’s at the source of the problem. It’s the same for the term arthritis. Inflammation destroys our body in a way that is most significant and that we most ignore. Instead of treating opioids like it’s the devil people should look at things like their sugar intake. They should look at things like the acidic state they throw their bodies into. They should not accept the “masks” that the medical industry gives them for reducing inflammation, but they should look at the cause more closely so that they don’t have negative outcomes from the medicines themselves. It’s all related by inflammation. What seems complicated is not so complicated when we reduce the inflammation in our bodies. All of a sudden my chronic glaucoma, high eye pressure went to normal when the gouty arthritis was controlled by normalizing my uric acid level. My interstitial cystitis was gone when my uric acid level was normalized seemingly unrelated things were normalized and healthy again when the inflammation at a core level was eliminated.
Replies to "@dadcue my confusion was not about gout but about something you wrote. I was unsure if..."
Connect
@loriesco
I guess we all try to cope with our medical problems in different ways. I was diagnosed with reactive arthritis at the age of 32 but I didn't exactly receive any regular medical care after that. My "medical care" ceased to exist for about 20 years until I was diagnosed with PMR at the age of 52. I wasn't ever started on Prednisone with the intent of taking it "long term" by any doctor until PMR was diagnosed.
The only "medical care" I received was from an ophthalmologist that I saw on a regular basis for recurrent flares of uveitis. In the 20 years before PMR was diagnosed, I had at least 30 flares of autoimmune related uveitis. For every uveitis flare my ophthalmologist prescribed anywhere between 60-100 mg of Prednisone to start with. Without knowing how long I would need to take Prednisone, my ophthalmologist never wanted me to run out of Prednisone. The quantity of Prednisone tablets that were prescribed was enormous. I accumulated a massive stockpile of leftover prednisone.
My ophthalmologist discovered how well I could take prednisone for uveitis to rapidly achieve remission and to taper off prednisone again. It wasn't like my ophthalmologist was uninvolved or anything. My flares of uveitis just became a routine occurrence instead of a medical emergency that uveitis is said to be. He had no idea I was taking prednisone for other reasons.
My ophthalmologist never realized how much pain I experienced for 20 years. I took Prednisone for "legitimate pain" that was excruciating unless I took some of my stash of leftover prednisone.
I saw several specialists including a rheumatologist during this time. I might have minimized how much pain I had but I didn't have any difficulty being diagnosed with several additional medical conditions. Invariably, I was told that Prednisone was NOT used for the conditions I had. Reactive arthritis isn't even treated with Prednisone on a long term basis.
I was prescribed NSAIDs, medications for nerve pain, some narcotics but I never wanted a narcotic. I didn't want to be labeled a "medication seeker" by any doctor. Eventually I decided to stop going to any doctors and simply took prednisone for everything. If anyone asked me for the name of my primary care doctor ... I gave the name of my ophthalmologist. I allowed myself to fall through the cracks in the medical community for my own medical care. I worked at a large university hospital so I had access to and worked with hundreds of doctors if I ever had any questions!
Everyone knew I took prednisone and assumed I saw a rheumatologist for my autoimmune conditions. Only a few people knew I was treating myself with Prednisone. My wife knew about how much Prednisone I was taking for everything. When PMR was diagnosed, my wife took me into her primary care doctor and didn't tell me where we were going. I didn't say too much to my wife's PCP because she treated me like I was crazy. I only said that I needed prednisone because I threw my stockpile of leftover Prednisone away. My wife filled in all the details. I was referred to a rheumatolgist. I found my own PCP who was more sympathetic.
Now I have future appointments with too many medical specialists. It was much easier when I took prednisone for everything and treated myself. However, every doctor I see is glad that I don't use prednisone anymore and I am also glad to be off prednisone.