Scan rescheduled for Tues due to heavy snow and extreme cold in Manhattan.

[Whittlesey]

Hi everyone, I missed my appointment with my rheumatologist, last Wed due to this weather. So I did not get the 10 mgs of methetextrate by muscular injection. It is Saturday, 5:30pm, our time, Jan 25, and I am exhausted. all day. Am making chicken soup now, but extreme fatigue, exhaustion, muscle pain. I just took the 3 mgs of methylprednisolone, so I have a little more energy. Trying to figure our how methetextrate figures into all of this. In researching medrol and adrenal failure, I found this, which some may find helpful -- a U.S. study on adrenal failure due to prednisone for GCA:

posting link and some text:

". . . Nevertheless, we strongly suggest that physicians’ vigilance should be increased in this older population, especially when GC therapy is greater than the previously mentioned thresholds. For patients at risk, a safe and reasonable way to proceed could be to taper GCs more slowly and to perform a first ACTH stimulation test before GC withdrawal. If this is abnormal, a second test should be performed after 12 and 24 months (if needed).

In conclusion, we report here, for the first time, the high frequency of adrenal insufficiency after long-term GC-treatment in patients with GCA. Higher doses of GC given for a longer duration were associated with increased adrenal insufficiency. Although this complication was often transitory, a non-negligible number of patients retained adrenal insufficiency. . . . "

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Seems there were controlled studies and they have published their results. A large percentage seem to have recovered adrenal function, but some did not. And currently the treatment for Cushing's syndrome and/or Addison's disease is prednisone, every day.

The way I feel today, I hope I am one of the percentages who do not have adrenal insufficiency. Believe this is good information to give a sense of what is happening in our bodies as we deal with these illnesses and their current medications.

praying that all of us are in the larger percentage that has no adrenal problems at all. Have not had wheat, nor milk nor eggs today. and wish all well and the best recoveries from this, that we can find.

all my best, Whittlesey with snow coming down in NYC truly believe all of us will survive well