OMG - i think i may never fall asleep again. im in agony not being able to sleep. and trust me - i am a lifer in the insomnia category - so that part isnt new - except - my body and my brain - REALLY want to sleep, to shut down...and it isn't happening.

because my neuro did not see fit to return my call Wed. night or all day thurs or all day fri - despite my numerous messages - i am now in the throes of a bad bad exacerbation. neuro finally called at 5something this evening - fri eve before a holiday weekend! he said his people would start working on getting the IVSM set up for me. Well, then a few hours passed, and ive heard nothing. double vision and vertigo increasing majorly.

Called doc on-call from his office. He returned my call - and he was familiar with the sitch - b/c when i called office at 4:45, the lines were being directed to emergency on call doc - and i told him what was happening. well 10 mins later my neuro called. i assumed he had spoken with my neuro, but no, my neuro started the process for the ivsm. i asked, what happens in i cant g it over the weekend? do i just suffer? no answer.

so, at 8:30 i paged the on-call doctor and he called me back. he felt genuinely bad that this was happening and no relief in sight. he wanted to do have oral solu-medrol - that thought freaked me out - he said there is a liquid form that i can drink (but to mix in smoothie or something). He said he'd look for a pharm that had it.

CVS, my pharm called a little bit later and said they had the rx filled for me. it is pill form prednisone - 20 pills a day to total 1000mg (1gram) of prednisode a day. the pharm kept telling me how unusual and what a high dose it is but that he kept asking doc and doc was fine and explained it to him. lol. the pharm only had 79 of the 100 pills i need. the rest will be in on tues. i hope this oral form works. the ivsm was great, no real major side effects.

i took my first dose - 10 nasty tasting pills - at 9:20pm. then at 10, i took my night time meds (ambien and ativan). Got into bed - can barely hold my head up - im feeling so lousy from the sx of the exacerbation. was in bed for 20 mins, then i could deal or sit still. so now im sitting back in living room. im in agony because my body and brain just want to sleep.

it's 2:05am. i took another half of sleep pill in hope that it works. i need to be up at 9am because i have a 2hr session with a client at 10. then i have a 2 hr consultation group with my colleagues. unfortunately,t hat drive is further away, so i dont know how i will get there. i can drive shorter distances - i will wear an eye patch to help eliminate the double vision. ugg.

sorry, im just whiny right now. im miserable. someone come hit me on the head with a big rubber mallet.

I personally have not taken an oral dose that high, but I have heard of others that have.

I've not heard of people taking that high a dose in tablet form where I live, but apparently the IV MethylPred 1000mg dose can be diluted with orange juice and drunk. So I guess it's the same thing, and much more convenient than going to the hospital and getting wired up to an IV.

What does surprise me though is that you've taken your dose at night. Prednisolone, Methyl Pred, and any steroids can make you really hyperactive and thus keep you wide awake at night. For this reason steroids are usually taken in the mornings to counteract this side effect.

Remember to take them with food too RedPenguins as the gastric side effects can be really unpleasant otherwise.

You're a worry for me, Miss Keri.

Cherie

HUGS to you ~!

Man this sounds so awful too ~! So how are you doing now? I wondered how you were able to work today?

Just know that we care, ok??

Warmly, Jan

Wow, that's a hefty oral dose. Usually prednisone is taken in the am when your adrenal gland is most active.But with that size oral dose, dividing it might be easier on your tummy. I hope your neuro gave you a script for your tummy, like a proton pump inhibitor.

Sending hugs your way, hoping you start to feel better. I am amazed that you are going to go to work. I think you should take some time off and be good to yourself!!

My neuro didn't give me anything - as it was the on-call doc (a wonderful dr - head of a private MS center here in SoCal). Anyhow, he was very sweet and nice to me - especially since it was friday night of a holiday weekend. Then again, as on-call doc, it was his job. LOL Although, it was MY neuro's job to have gotten back to me sooner than Fri at 5pm when I'd been leaving MULTIPLE messages since Wed. evening.

I feel like crud. I ended up taking another 1/2 sleeping pill and finally fell asleep.

Did I mention in my first post that these pills taste horrible, no matter how i take them? Ugg. I've barely taken today's first dose. I guess I took the dose last night b/c I wanted to get started - and I didn't get meds until 9pm...and I knew it had to be split in 2 doses. Oh, so many pills - and I don't mind pills....but these! Ugg. nasty tasting.

So, is there something over the counter I can take to combat gastric probs? I'm especially worried about this for several reasons, as i've had gastric bypass surgery nearly 4 yrs ago, so my "plumbing" isn't the same as other people...so I don't ALWAYS absorb pills the same way. There's a chance that I won't get full dose of it - or that the dose will hit quicker than it should. However, we never know! I would have preferred the liquid form or the IV - I've not had problems with the two IVSM tx that I had. The liquid idea scared me at first, but is a moot point since I couldn't get it to late last night, on the eve of a holiday. I wonder if doc could've called a hospital pharmacy to get it for me today? Oh well now.

I'm trying to take my dose right now. I've gotten 4 of the 10 down. SO NASTY! (and no, I'm not chewing them. OMG, I can't imagine how gross that would be - I remember someone posting on the Ty board that they chewed them. Eeek!!)

Thank you for your concern everyone. I appreciate it a lot, as I'm very concerned, too. The on-call doc said to call if I needed to - and trust me, I will!!!

I did manage to see my client today. See, when I'm at work, I get to be Keri - not KeriWithMS. I try to turn of my sx. Of course, not so easy to turn off double vision without wearing the eye patch or closing one eye. Sometimes if I concentrate hard enough to focus, I can get back to mono-vision for a smidge of time - but it gives me a killer headache (which I have now). Fortunately, my clients can't tell if I'm seeing double! LOL

I just want to be done with this MS. I admire all of you who have struggled with MS (whether benign or active) for so many years. I'm barely going on 5 months (on June 4).

~Keri

I just posted on the other thread...I hope you are feeling better soon, Keri.

I don't know what OTC meds are available to you there, but I''d suggest something like Zantac (Ranitidine) if that's a viable option for you.

BTW. I do remember that awful taste.

Hey Keri, I'm sorry to hear you have been feeling cruddy. Swallowing prednisone pills does not sound like fun! You might try Prilosec over the counter. It's similar to prescription Nexium which is what they gave me when I was on steroids to protect my stomach. I have taken Prilosec too and found it works quite well. I hope you are feeling better soon.

Hello Penquin,

Glad you have support and got through your work day. May I ask what kind of work do you do? I mean if the client may be worse off that they dont even notice YOU are too ???

PROBIOTICS are good or anthing else, like Zypan from a health food store may be easier to your system than some of the OTC.

PLEASE keep us informed. I especially came on to this forum to check on you.

Hope you get to relax a bit this weekend...

Warmly, Jan