so tues night i had my first ambulance ride to the emergency room...has anyone ever had an iv? did they splater your blood all over the bed, kinda freaked me out. i mean i wasn't bleeding when she called them....just in horible pain!
it was very sureal they put me on a strecher and belted me down in like three places...is that always necassary...i wasn't going anywere!
it was crazy foggy out and 2 in the morn when they wheeled me into the street...i must have been making a racket cause some of the neibors had come outside...that was a bit embarrsing...oh well....not that i really gave a shit at the time...i just wanted to know what the hell was happening to my legs.
i still don't know...they just druged me at the hospital.
i was still in pain just to druged to writh aroud and bitch and scream.....i think the drugs were more for there benefit!



*****************

just puting this down cause it's interesting....it certainly does not mean this is happening to me....just that i am going to have the ex rays to rule it out....apparently in medical journals (European at least) if joint pain is experienced during or after steroid use it is mandatory that they rule this out first...but it is rare and is sort of swept under the carpet do to how rare this side effect is. apparently the pred blocks up the blood cells like cholesterol which prevents the bones from "feeding" they begin to die and degenerate. it is so rare i doubt that i would be in the presence of another who has this and have it myself. but i do know unless it's life or death i will never take this stuff again!

i talked to the doc this morn....and then to a man with this prob who was prescribed pred in a sim fashion as me. for James it is in his hips...he described the same type of out of the blue emergency room visit as mine while going of the pred...but his sounded worse and he was miss diagnosed with a cycle cell crisis for years. and not treated appropriately. so i'm just going to get them to rule it out on there advice, just in case, and i'm not going to mention it to my mom. she will be convinced my bones are dieing and freak out. and i'm probably just fine, even if some damage was done maybe it's not that bad. they just kind of freaked me a bit. but james is no longer in wheel chair and gets about on a leg brace....aaaa i'm going to stop i'm over reacting and i'm sure i'm just fine.

**************************
With her permission I print an extract of the Submission to Parliament of NZAVS member Sandra Mattiassi of Wellington who suffers bone degeneration which is confirmed by two orthopaedic surgeons and the prescribing neurosurgeon to be the permanent and direct result of Betamethasone and Prednisone steroids:
"In 1982 I was given Betamethasone and Prednisone (steroids) whilst in hospital. These had radical side effects at the time which were regarded as unimportant and 'normal' when I complained of them. However six years later I discovered that I have osteonecrosis of the humeral head (bone degeneration of shoulder joints) for which I may eventually need artificial joint replacement. Specialists have informed me that this was caused through the prescription of steroids. These were 'tested' on animals and then on me. Please note that my case of steroid damage is not an isolated one, two cases have been reported in a recent NZ Medical Journal."