Monday, March 12, 2012

Prednisolone

At this point I have reduced my B12 injections to every other week rather than every week. My blood tests are now showing my B12 levels as being in the "normal" range... finally. It is only a matter of time before I decide to stop the injections all together. I am thankful that Dr. M (my rheumatologist) is leaving this up to me. 

At today's appointment I saw the APRN at Dr. M's office. This was my first time meeting her and she was pretty clueless about my case so we briefly went over it together. By the end of the visit she prescribed me a Medrol does pack (Prednisolone), which is a steroid that is used to treat many medical conditions (google it). She prescribed this to see if it would help with my fatigue. Now that my B12 levels are reading as "normal" it is clear that the injections have done all that they are capable of doing for me and the cause of the fatigue that is still present must now be determined. The possibility of Lupus is now roaring, and tests for this have been done multiple times. With a family history of Lupus and a diagnosis of Hashimoto's it is unclear whether my positive ANA is solely related to these reasons or whether there is something else going on. Since I had just received a B12 injection I was instructed to wait one week before starting the steroid. 

I started the Medrol dose pack on March 21, 2012 and finished it on Monday the 26th. I do not have much to say about the results. I do not feel as though it helped with my fatigue, though I do feel I was better able to concentrate and felt more focused for about 2 days out of the 5 I was taking it. Bottom line, nothing to really brag about. 

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