June 08, 2004

Prednisone

One of the meds I was on for my clusters was prednisone. Among its side effects is that it made me insanely hungry all the time. When I was on it, I was eating some 4000 calories a day. (It must have bumped up my metabolism too because I didn't gain too much weight.) It became my default mode to scavenge for food in the pantry. One interesting thing I noticed was that eating made my head feel better. I don't know if it is the physical act of chewing and swallowing, or if it is the sugar rush, or the some other chemical effect of eating (are endorphins released when you eat??), but my head always feels better when I eat.

When my course of pred was finished, I started taking various pain killers to deal with the increased frequency of clusters. They had the effect of damping down my appetite. So I went from hungry-all-the-time to eating-because-I-know-I-should. But now I'm off those too and am my hunger levels are back to normal.

- wink [June 8, 2004 10:57 AM]
Comments

Katherine says:

Hmmm, reminds me of pregnancy. Hungry all the time, or throwing up. Eating always made me feel instantly better too. I would feel nauseous and faint, but then if I (counter-intuitively) ate something even though I felt like I was going to vomit, the nausea disappeared and I felt better. There are good things to be said for eating. Does eating still make you feel better now that your hunger levels are normal? Maybe you should snack all day on little tidbits...could you be a bit hypoglycemic or something?

I am so sorry for all your pain and side effects and praying for rescue for you. I am also in awe at all the childcare you do in your state. Is Tree going to start a blog sometime so we can see what her side of the story is like? What does she do?

- Katherine [June 8, 2004 12:47 PM]

Jeremy Pierce says:

Were your hunger levels ever normal?

- Jeremy Pierce [June 9, 2004 05:10 AM]

wink says:

Normal as in normal-for-me, not normal-for-the-average-person.

- wink [June 9, 2004 08:40 AM]

wink says:

Katherine - Eating still makes me feel better, though I don't think that I'm hypoglycemic. Snacking all day on tidbits sounds good, but I need more than just tidbits to feel better, and I'd rather not gain tons of weight.

Tree has no plans for blogging as of yet. She's more into online bulletin boards.

- wink [June 9, 2004 09:32 AM]