Prednisone: A Love/Hate Story

A lot of humans read yesterday blog and laughed, and laughed and laughed.  But, really, prednisone is a serious business. Mom has been on steroids since before I came to live with her and Dad.  (That's a good story, too, but needs to wait until after I go get rid of the cat in the window...)

Ok, now that I've taken care of the important business of guarding the house, let's get back to the topic of prednisone.  You'll notice that the words "Love" and "Hate" are used - those are strong words, indicating an elevated level of feeling.  Mom very rarely uses the word "Hate" - it's not in her working vocabulary.  (I on the other hand really hate that cat in the window.  I think it has to do with that whole cat/dog rivalry that's as old as time itself).

      Love is a word that Mom uses frequently.  She loves her mom (Mom Z), and her husband, (my Dad!), Aunt Carolyn, Uncle Ron, Lynn, Katie...ok, she's LOVES the people in her life.  Of course, she adores ME (and Tipsy and Shadow, too - but really..ME).

Steroids tend to bring out those diametrically opposed words - which isn't surprising as one of the primary side-effects is MOOD SWINGS.  Happy/Sad, Pleasant/Angry, Content/Disgruntled - it's like flipping a switch.  This unpleasant and baffling side effect doesn't need a trigger - it just happens.  And, the higher the dose, the worse and more frequent the mood swings.  In fact, a lot of people who take steroids for a long time need to take anti-depressant to cope with this rotten side effect. So, you have to take a pill, to help with the side effects of the first pill(s).

       I could continue writing about these side effects, but let's let pictures and charts do the talking. Although I generally am the featured canine here (it IS my blog) after all, I invited Tipsy to help me.  She's a love bug, so I let her have the LOVE column.

****DISCLAIMER****  This is not a complete list - just the most common ones that effect people who take prednisone for a long time let's say over 6 months or - like Mom - three years and counting.  Side effects can be mild to extreme (like mom again).  The ones listed below seem to the ones that Mom finds to be the most egregious.

A Word About Steroids...

My "Old" Friend Maggie

Two years ago, or maybe more - you know I have no sense of time -  Mom started taking me to the Early Learning Center at University of Delaware.  I went once a week to class and helped teach reading, math and my favorite...agility.  Mom was feeling better then than she is now, some of the medicines were working and she was able to volunteer a few hours per week with PAWS for People (www.pawsforpeople.org).

Mom set up courses with tunnels and jumps and weave poles, and my job was show all the four-year olds how to run the course.  Then, THEY ran the course - leaping over jumps, crawling through the tunnel and learning how to go through the weave poles.  Clever Mom made bandanas for everyone to help stay cool (they were really just scraps from the fabric store with dog paw prints on them, but we all loved wearing them.  Mom brought ice water to dip them in and stay cool.)

The four-year olds were a little slower than me, but I figure that's because I have four legs. We had lots of fun in the sun during those weeks when we played outside and learned coordination, logical thinking, and number sequences.  I usually don't pick favorites, but I sure liked Maggie because she gave great tummy rubs.

We had to stop working at the ELC in the fall of 2010 after Mom had sepsis.  She was really weak from having a heart attack, liver shock and well...just a huge infection.  Plus, she couldn't take any more medicine for RA except steroids.  Nothing.  Sigh....no more ELC, no more reading, no more visiting with little kids.  We were both bummed.  Mom cried about it.


But, imagine how surprised we were to see Maggie, her mom and dad and little brother at Community Days!  She's growing up and is now is First Grade!  Wow...I was happy to see her!

I heard Maggie's Mom and my mom talking.  Maggie really missed us when we left.  She talked and talked about Mousse and Miss Hepsi and all the fun they had when we came to school.  As a matter of fact, Maggie said that "Four-year old school was The Best year of school she'd ever had". 


Thanks Maggie. I hope the next twelve years of school aren't TOO disappointing.  

Community Days...introducing some campaigners

One of the good things about being a dog is that your perception of time is different from humans.  One of the bad things about being a dog is that your perception of time is different from humans.  It seems like Community Days was just yesterday, but according to Mom, I am way behind in this blog. So, today I'm going to post two!


Operation Save Hepsi had our first big fundraiser on Sunday,  September 18.  What a beautiful day!  Sunny, temperature was like perfect and we met lots and lots of people. I am a people magnet.

   

What a great group of people!  They all love my mom and gave it their all ALL day day long.  I'm going to have to find Jane and get a picture of her.  She's very camera shy.  

DId I mention that I was there as the main attraction? 

There were tons of things for sale to help raise money.  Lynn's Peach Jam was a huge hit, Aunt Carolyn's "Honey for Hepsi" sold out, and lots of earring and bracelets.  

No day is complete if one doesn't take time to admire herself.

What was the best part of the day?  Hmmmm...meeting people.  I think we'll start another blog entry for that.  Really, the best part of the day was seeing my mom smile a lot, talk with people, and get $1026 in donations!  Not bad for a nice day!

Here's looking at you, kids.  Thanks for a great day!

Morning Glorious

Mornings are always interesting. Mom wakes up and her first job is assess her condition.  How many joints hurt?  Did she get enough sleep?  Can she stand up or does she need to sit on the edge of the bed for a few minutes to let her feet get ready for the first step? And then, there's the stairs...don't even get her started about the stairs.  They can be a MAJOR obstacle to her well being.  There's two banisters to help out, but some mornings she has to sit on her rear end (really she calls it her butt descent) and slide down to the first floor.  The best thing is that we can impeded her progress by offering kisses, toys and generally showing how much we love having her at our level.  Ok...so that's what I think.  Mom finds the coffee that Dad makes for her to be the "best part of waking up."  Really?  Coffee over vizsla and yellow lab kisses?  Hmmmmm....I'll have to give this some thought. Coffee is about the only thing she eats or drinks that I don't want to eat.  It's blechy.

But, I digress....mom took her trekking poles, treats and loaded us into the car for a morning schlep.  (She schleps, we run, run run).  I don't have a gear for schlepping.  I have two gears  "On" and "Off".  "On" includes  faaaaasssst.

Did I mention that mom brought treats?  She makes most of our treats.  Today she brought "stinky cookies".  She makes them twice a year and freezes them.  They can only be made on days when ALL the windows in the house can be open...the main ingredient is sardines and they (according to the humans in the house) smell vile.  Hence the name "stinky cookies".  But, you can see that we loooooove stinky cookies and come at a run for them.

Phew!  Fortunately, Mom saved some for me.  It took her a minute to treat me because she was laughing at my seed face

All, in all, it was a great morning.  We only walked half the field...it was that kind of a day, but one thing I've noticed about Mom; she would rather be out with us for a schlep that takes an hour to do what she could have done last month in 20 minutes.  She says it's good for her soul; fresh air, sunshine, the company of clowns (that's us), a hawk flying overhead, seeing a fox in the distance, and listening to the crazy honks of the Canadian Geese as they begin they're migration south.  If her soul is fed and her spirit recharged, she can face the day.

Looks like today was successful.  Wet feet, sunshine and laughing.  We only hope that tomorrow morning can be the same.

Clara's Show and Go

How exciting!  Clara's having a Show and Go at her house for members of the Academy of Dog Training and Agility learn about Mom's stem cell transplant.  Very few people at the academy know what Mom's up against 'cos she doesn't talk about it much, so this event is to start educating our group so they can gear up for the next Big Show and Go.

There's nothing I like better than than agility!  Ok, I love steak and those "stinky cookies" that Mom makes; chasing squirrels and rolling in goose poop is really fun too, but paw for paw, agility is MY FAVORITE thing.  I LOVE it...and so does Mom.  We love working together, trying out new moves and learning how to work as a team.  The only problem is that Mom doesn't run at all, now.  When we first started, she was able to run pretty well for short bursts, but this past year, especially since the septic shock in March, she's had more and more trouble keeping up with me on the the course.  But...we still love it and are working on "distance" - that means she sends me away from her to take obstacles and jumps.  This is tricky to learn and REALLY hard for Vizslas to learn because we are velcro dogs.  We like to stick with our humans.

Here's Clara's course!  We had to go through the garden and around the shed!  The garden smelled good.

Clara's courses are always challenging.  I think Clara would be a great agility judge!  She loves watching all us dogs, encouraging our owners, giving tips and designing courses. I think Clara is one of the kindest people I know.  She's patient and kind and she always flops on the floor and rubs my belly for a loooooong time.  Best of all, Clara always smells good...I think she's one big treat.

Lots of friends from the Academy showed up:

Even my good friend, Ellie Mae (Tipsy's daughter) came and showed off her newbie agility skills.  What great weave poles! Check out these fast weave poles!

We had a great day and were happy and tired!  And, we raised at least $600 for Mom's transplant fund.  Wow, Wow, Wow!  Now THAT makes me happy!

Well, This is the Forest of Arden...

...said Rosalind to Touchstone in "As you like it." Touchstone replies, "Ay, now I am in Arden, more fool I."  And WHAT A FOOL I was...a petting fool!!  There were 9,000 humans at Arden Fair, and I must have met hundreds of them!  "Can I pet your dog?" was the most frequently asked question!  Good thing Mom said "Yes" every time!  Here I am getting all the attention from new friends Lindsay, Varsha, Varsha's sister, Aasthna and Gwen. giving me greeeeeeeeaaaaaat pets.  Why are Gwen and Lily just sitting around in the back?  I've got lots of tummy room!

  AHHHHH....

But wait, this was serious business.  Right?  I'm here to help Mom with the launch of Operation Save Hepsi.  We're here to meet people and talk to them about Rheumatoid Arthritis and why Mom needs a stem cell transplant.  We had a tent sent up, brochures, buttons...those were highly desireable since they have MY picture on them.  There were also BIG PICTURES that Mom took on some of her research cruises to show what she used to do before she was sick. Here's Katie Scanlan (Co-Campaign Chair), Alex and Tori showing off our tent and poster.  Notice the bar showing how much money we've gotten is at $0.  That's OK though, we have to start at zero and can only go up from there!

 oops....BRB!

I generally don't like felines of any kind...but this Zoe is my kind of cat.  More pets for Mousse-Mousse.  Ahhhhh......

But seriously, we're here to start the campaign.  We need to raise $100,000 as soon as possible to buy those stem cells.  Let's get going!

First, the Operation Save Hepsi volunteers get their plummage on.                    

Then, Hannah, Alex and Tori stop to give me a final pet <smirk> before heading out to mingle in that crowd of 9,000. They handed out lots and lots of buttons and brochures and sent tons of people over to meet Mom.

I think that was the best part of the day...watching Mom talk to people.  I told you that she was nervous and anxious about the day - that she had ambivilant feelings about "begging".  However, all the people we met were exceedingly kind and encouraging.  Most people were very interested in the actual use of stem cells and how umbilical cord blood was going to be used.  In fact, the question/comment that she feared hearing the most, "You have RA?  But you LOOK so good" was only heard about 20 times.  (I was counting even though I appeared to be paying no attention).  

In fact, people were more interested in the science of the transplant and the injustice of medical insurance decisions than anything else (except meeting me). Some people put cash into out "Maine Moose" bucket, but Hepsi asked them to either come to a fundraiser or better, make a donation online so that they could get the tax deduction.  Most people, to our surprise, weren't that interested in the tax deduction as much as helping saving Mom's life.  People like helping people in need.

There were two people that really need to get my special thanks; Diane and Jeff.  They stopped by the tent early in the morning where they shared their story of DIane's struggle with chronic cancer.  Diane told Hepsi that it's really normal and ok to lie down on the floor and cry your eyes out from time to time.  Really...this is normal and should not be construed as anything but a natural reaction to a chronic, life threatening condition.  Somedays, sometimes it all becomes TOO MUCH and you just have to cry. And that's ok.  Cry, feel bad, and then, when you're done, dry your eyes, pull up your big girl panties and move on.  I don't wear panties at all - this is some kind of human metaphor for "shake it off after you've slid all the way a creek bank and into the creek" kind of thing.  It seems like good advice.  I mean, I love it when Mom lies on the floor to do her exercises....I get to lie there with her and get extra lovin', but when she'd sad, it's different.  Not so many pets from her...in fact, I have to pet her, lick those salty tears and just curl up with her until she's done.  It's normal. Phew! 

Just like it's normal for us to be tired after a big day. I need a nap.

All's well that ends well (today).  

(more shakespeare)