My doctor just prescribed some oral steroids for what's going on this week. (numbness in very important areas we wont mention, pain from the numbness, weakness in legs)

I'm excited, but I'm also annoyed that I have to take the steroids. (there goes my ability to sleep for the next couple of weeks) They taste gross, they cause me problems with things.

I wanna take them, but I dont wanna take them.

This is the third time since last June that I've been Rx some steroids. (june I had the expensive IVSM, in October I had the $5 bottle of oral) Fourth time I've ever had to take steroids. (had a Rx for oral 'roids in 2007 for some vertigo) I'm pretty much assured that I'll have problems in the future from having to take steroids.

The IVSM worked great last summer. (had a vision problem), but in October, the oral did absolutely nothing except for help make the nerve pain go away that was making my arm feel like it was being crushed.

I'm worried that the oral wont do anything for this numbness either, this numbness is a lot worse than the numb hand was. My back hurts, and it feels like my spine is being squeezed down in the low back. I feel like I can barely walk. I HAD to use a grocery cart at the store last night. (stupid kid stole it from me when I was checking out. I made the cashier go get it back for me so I could get to my car) It's causing me other problems I wont go into, but mentioning that problem is probably why my really cool neuro is calling in the Rx for me.

I think I'll take my mom out for breakfast and pick up my steroids. (Mmmm! steroids for breakfast! Yuck!)

I really hate that the MS makes it necessary that I have to take steroids sometimes. This sucks.

Sorry to hear you're bad enough to require steroids...take lots of cinnamon candy or lemon drops...and a low sodium diet to keep the lbs. off. No more than 2000mg/day while you're on them...

I had my first dose with breakfast this morning. (took my mom and sister out, well, mom paid)

Instead of my usual french toast and bacon, I had a rather yummy "breakfast banana split". Bananas, blueberries, strawberries and strawberry yogurt...with a bunch of nice and crunchy granola. (Mmmmm!!!) and a bagel. OMG! It was great! (took away the nasty taste of steroid I got from choking down the prednisone)

Now I just have to decide what to have for dinner. Not sure yet.

I only had four hours of sleep last night. Hard to sleep when you're numb. I want to take a nap, but I've got to take my mom to physical therapy today.

I just hope the steroids work. The neurological itching that started today is driving me nuts. Oh, and the fact that all of my clothes except for my bra are really really really uncomfortable.

I want clothing that doesnt make me want to rip my skin off!!

How long before the steroids kick in????

2000mg/day oral sounds like alot. What do you think that equals i.v. form?

Good luck Erin.

Hope you are feeling better soon and that the steroids help. My neuro does not prescribe oral steroids for flares. He does not think they help.

Oh that's a lot! Are you taking a sleeping pill and something to protect your stomach?

Debbie said, limit your salt to less than 2000 mg a day, not the steroids. She is not getting that much in the oral form.

As for salt, I would limit my salt to less than the 2000 mg a day. Bacon and a bagel is even over that amount. That is a normal diet amount 2000 mg of salt.

Too much salt, with any steroids and your Potassium goes way down. They must be equal. Eat a banana, yogurt, baked potato, etc., to up your Potassium. Talk to your doctor and have blood drawn before and after steroids.

Eddie,
Milli is a prefix meaning a thousand, which means that one milligram is one thousandth of a gram.

Therefore, there are 1,000 mg in a gram. Your answer, 1 gram of IVSM = 1000 milligrams of prednisone.

But their make-up is different. So it is not the same drug. IVSM is methylprednisolone sodium succinate, not Prednisone.

I started to reconsider taking the oral steroids and wanting the IVSM. The stress and the absolute discomfort (discomfort as a word doesnt cover this. I dont think I can adequately describe how hideous this is without a lot of swearing)

I called the neuro's emergency number tonight to ask about a few things. He said I'd have to wait till monday for the IVSM, and that I should relax over the weekend and think about it. I might feel better monday and change my mind about it.

I was so stressed out about it that I was having a bit of a panic attack. That's got to be what it was because I was a lot hysterical, crying...I think I scared the gatekeeper at the emergency number who sends on the messages.

The on-call neuro asked me if I had anything for anxiety. I said yes. He said to take some. That helped a lot. Some of the numbness calmed down. (stress does really seem to affect things)

I discovered that neurontin is helping my left hand numbness that I've had since last fall. (finally! didnt do a thing for me last fall)

I was also reminded by my boyfriend that I had a back pain the other night when he was here visiting. (trying to not give TMI, but he's a heavy guy, I made him move because my back had been hurting all day, and it spiked a bit that night at one point)

I had a back injury in 1999 that makes my back hurt in that area and I know I might have some sort of disc problem there..if I'm right the numbness might be coming from the same area.

I did a lot of walking on sunday with my boyfriend and his dad. Towards the end of the night, my back was hurting in that area. I dont know if hurting myself the other day might have caused this.

I need to ask my neuro about it on monday. Maybe I'll try the steroids first, and if that doesnt help, then I'll ask them to look at my back and see if there's a physical problem back there bugging me.

not sure how I did this, but every paragraph I typed above this looks like it's just a couple of sentences, they almost all start with the letter "I". weird. Maybe I took too much Ativan a few hours ago when I was freaking out? I feel like I'm writing while under the influence. (I'm sensitive to medications)

Lady - my bad. Thanks for making me go back and read it twice (sodium not pred). Yes I know 1000mg = 1g Was wondering uptake like you said. I know i.v. is direct (best) and digestion sure causes loss + organ toll (not like inj. cant cause oragan issues).
Anyway, what's average oral dose? I never did orals and don't plan on it yet. Will try LDN and Ampyra, and stay on Ty for now.
Thankyou for corrcting me.

My neuro gave me a bottle with 70 pills. Think they're 10mg apiece. You start out with taking six pills a day for the first three days...then five pills for the next three days, four pills a day for the next 3 days...and so on till you get down to just one pill a day. (you end up with extras left over, since the neuro just over prescribes just a teeny bit so he doesnt have to do any math)

Only reason I went with the oral pred is because I didnt feel like giving up 3 or 4 days of my life, sitting in an outpatient infusion center reading my Kindle or playing on my netbook while a bag of fluid slowly dripped into my arm...plus, the IVSM is expensive!

A bottle of oral pred was a little bit under $6 at Walgreens. Tastes nasty, and I have to sit and gather up the courage to gag the pills down with a huge bottle of water. But, it's cheap and doesnt require me having to leave that annoying IV port in my arm for three or four days. (I only have one decent vein for IV's that's easily accessible)

I hate the steroids, but I hate the feeling of the numbness and feeling like it's screwing with my ability to walk. It triggers my claustrophobia for some reason.

I'm trying to not eat the house down while on these things. I think I was well behaved yesterday when I had a fruity yogurt dish at a local restaurant for my breakfast, and then only having half of a patty melt and some fruit for dinner at another restaurant.

This morning I stole one of my sister's yogurts to eat with my steroids, and I just splurged and had some brownies my aunt made for me. I'm going to try to not hit the brownies again till tomorrow (hopefully they'll be drier and chewier then...I hate gooey brownies) I'm going to send my dad out for some grapes tonight...and maybe some carrots. (I think I might need the fiber from that, plus it's probably better than having him pick up the Doritos that I'm dying for right now.)

Last time I had steroids, I made sure that I had one really tasty, bad-for-me junk food, so that I could satisfy that particular craving, but made sure that all the other options were halfway healthy.

I just hope I'm not stuck with this particular sensation. I would hate to go thru life being tortured like this. Think I'd rather be waterboarded.