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December 11, 2005
Dexamethasone be going
I’ve had neurosurgery three times now. Each time, you are put on dexamethasone, a medication that is a synthetic version of something your body makes—only dexamethasone is a couple hundred times stronger. The purpose of it is that it reduces the size of the tumour. I was also put on dexamethasone for my six weeks of radiation treatment (radiation is the one that makes a new hairstyle). The deal with dexamethasone is that if one takes it for more than three weeks, your body doesn’t bother making its own anymore, so one becomes dependent on it. As my last neurosurgery was followed immediately with six weeks of radiation, well, my body now relies on dexamethasone.
This has many interesting side-effects.
In the beginning I’d sleep only an hour a night (Back from the brink) and purchased expensive things online in the wee hours (knowing nothing about our financial situation, which Jennifer manages). I eat enormous amounts of food. My back is covered with pimples. I have headaches. I nap daily. It goes on and on.
When we went to see our chemotherapist I asked him why my back is such a mess. “Dexamethasone.� We asked how I could get off it. He paused for a second and then told me just to stick with it. Sounds like it’s too hard the get off to even try.
The hell with that.
Before going to see Grandfather George, I tried to quickly cut it (Aboriginal healing detail), earning myself a zillion seizures. But the night I got back Jennifer started cutting it and we’ve now hit the point of eliminating the afternoon pill—halfway there! I’m very hopeful that in the next month or so I’ll manage to be rid of this useless drug as my body will have happily resumed making it’s own.
Then I shouldn’t be so tired all the time, shouldn’t have headaches anymore, my swollen belly and rounded face should return to normal. And goodbye zits.
Once this drug is gone we’ll start cutting anti-seizure drugs to see if they’re still necessary.
Posted by Peter at December 11, 2005 11:18 AM
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