20 November 2023
It’s been an interesting day. I at least got 7 hours of sleep last night and a short, short nap this afternoon.
Most of my morning was a drudge. I feel terrible when I get out of bed and simply slog through breakfast and any tasks I set myself. I changed the linen on the guest bed, dusted around the room and tidied up as much as possible in anticipation of Wade’s visit for Thanksgiving. It left me exhausted.
Farah called around 10 am and said Dr. Jellinger would Tele-Med me around noon or 12:30 and provided me the link via email. I knew that was a pipe dream. Dr. Jellinger takes time and talks with his patients. I’ve learned to be the first patient of the afternoon because every patient thereafter is late getting in to see him. I don’t begrudge him that – I appreciate his taking time with them. Besides, I’m retired, what else do I have to do?
Farah called me back around 1 pm and apologized. We reset the Tele-Med for 2:30 and he was ready (after a glitch or two) at 2:40 pm.
In essence, we re-hashed my symptoms. I mentioned that the side effects I’m experiencing are common to both adrenal insufficiency and Taxol treatments. He then asked when my last Taxol treatment was (October 17) and then proceeded to look up the half-life of the drug. Based on his calculations, I should be over the major effects of Taxol (not, it seems, the peripheral neuropathy). I can tell the side effects are abating – my beard is coarser, for example.
We then shifted to adrenal insufficiency and he questioned how much I was urinating with the Jardiance. To make it short, he’s stopped the Jardiance. He thinks it is dehydrated me and causing my fatigue and tiredness and lack of energy. I’m to start up my blood pressure medicine again (Losartin) but at half the dose (50 mg vs. 100 mg). I’m to continue to take the prednisone at 5 mg daily.
If after two or three days off Jardiance and I don’t bounce back energy wise, I’m to add 2.5 mg of prednisone at bedtime. The real problem is the longer you are on prednisone, the longer it takes to come off it. He’s concerned my adrenals will not bounce back if I stay on the prednisone too long.
Any way, I’m to text him Saturday morning (he’s in New York) and let him know how I’m doing and provide him my vitals. Next Monday I’m going in for a blood draw.
He asked me to take my blood pressure resting and supine and then take it standing after 1 minute and 3 minutes. After being supine for 5 minutes my BP was 152/92. I took twice more: 147/91 and 152/93. After standing 1 minute it was 136/90. After three minutes 138/88.
He later texted me he expected a greater drop in pressure. I’m to go full dose on Losartan if my BP is consistently greater than 140/90 on the half dose. If this doesn’t work, there is something else that is going on with me that will have to be determined. Keep your fingers crossed.
One of the peculiar things is that I usually start to feel better towards the evening after a terrible morning and afternoon. I take the Jardiance in the morning, so we both wondered if the effects of Jardiance was wearing off and the effects of the prednisone kicked in.
Ironically, I was out of Jardiance and needed the prescription refilled. It was ready today and I drove to Walgreens and picked it up (to the tune of $118). When I asked about the glucose test strips, the pharmacist came to talk to me. Apparently, the government will not refill those until 2 days before the prescription is due.
The pharmacist asked if I had a supplemental policy to Medicare and I said yes, United Healthcare. He asked what plan. I said “F.” He said “Good, they cover everything.” I mentioned I get tons of mail asking me to change plans and he told me never, ever change from”F” if I don’t have to. It’s a good thing I’m grandfathered in because AARP and the government stopped that plan.
I did manage to work on a bed side lamp. The light kept flickering. I pulled the bed out to reach the plug and took the lamp to the kitchen table and started to work on it and check the wiring. It looked good and when I put the guts back together, the light still flickered. I decided to change the bulb. Voilà! It was the bulb. I should have checked that first!
Stay tuned!