Calcium Supplements.

[Slosh]

Hi - does anyone take calcium supplements?

Does the weepy-ness get better as one tapers down?

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Normally we are handed a prescription for calcium and vit D supplements together with the pred. Calceos and AdCal are the usual in the UK, They are 600 mg calcium and 400 IU vit D per tablet, taken 2 x daily.

And yes - if you have mood changes of any sort they do improve not only as you taper down but also as you get used to the tablets even at the same dose.

[Slosh]

Thank you. I was not given any prescription for supplements nor were they even discussed.

The weepy-ness comes and goes - but is a bit ridiculous when it comes! 😳

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Slosh]

It will get better, Honestly, But don't hold your breath - in a year you will look back and see how far you have come. But it will have been a slow improvement, sometimes so slow you won't notice until you look back from a distance.

[Slosh in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you PMRpro - I have also just immigrated and feel like I have been holding it together for so long that it's like a flood of suppressed emotions, memories etc just overflowing. So ultra sensitive. Glad it gets better.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Slosh]

You have had a whole load of life-changing events come all in a lump - moving to a new country isn't easy even when you speak the language (sort of, English isn't always English!). Moving house within your own country can be bad enough. Then you have been hit with a chronic illness for which there is no cure, always unsettling, even when it isn't life-threatening it is lifestyle-changing. And the only medication is corticosteroids which are mood-altering. No wonder you're weepy!

[Rugger in reply to Slosh]

The first GP I saw didn't mention calcium and vitamin D, but 9 months later, another did and I'm now on Accrete D3 twice a day which contains 600mg calcium and 400IU vitamin D per tablet. It says they shouldn't be chewed, but can be broken in half, "if needed"! I had my blood vitamin D checked and it was low, so I'm on a HUGE dose of vitamin D, just for 8 weeks to top me up! The calcium shouldn't be taken at the same meal as your pred - I learnt that on this forum!

[Slosh in reply to Rugger]

Thanks for that.

[SheffieldJane]

Make sure you are resting enough slosh, sometimes when you are over tired and feeling rotten all you can do is cry. It does get better.

On the calcium question, I am on Adcal ( chewable because they are massive bullets to swallow) but I had to ask for them. Unlike the AA drug that the GP was pushing with dire tales of wheelchairs.

[piglette in reply to SheffieldJane]

I never knew Adcal was chewable, I have been swallowing them whole with large amounts of water. Thanks for mentioning it.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to piglette]

I've always chewed any of them, officially chewable or not.

[piglette in reply to PMRpro]

You are like my father he crunches through all tablets, it sends shivers up my spine sometimes.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to piglette]

If there is one thing I CANNOT crunch through it is pred!!!!!

[piglette in reply to PMRpro]

Luckily he is not on pred!

[Rokerman in reply to piglette]

I do the same Piglette - it's a bloke thing......

I can swallow a pint of water trying get down an Aspirin and the pill still remains in my mouth.

I was delighted to get a prescription of Calcichew - would probably take them even if I didn't need them...!

[karools16 in reply to piglette]

Wow Piglette...swallowing Adcal whole! Instructions on box says 'do not swallow whole'. I have the Tutti Frutti ones...lovely..like a sweetie.

[piglette in reply to karools16]

Thanks karools, I have not seen that I better check. Mine are in a foil pack and I just press out one when I need it. It does have a divider line down the middle though.

[karools16 in reply to piglette]

Piglette, it seems from your and Sheffieldjane's comments, there is another version of Adcal, as well? Mine are also in foil with the morning and evening doses, as well as the days,marked out.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to karools16]

Adcal comes as chewable tablets, dissolve tablets (sic) and caplets. If I remember rightly the doses are different - caplets are 4x daily, the others 2x daily.

[karools16 in reply to PMRpro]

Silly me, thinking I knew it all!! I bow to the knowledgeable PMRpro.I have only ever been prescribed the chewable kind, so didn't realise the other.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to karools16]

Wasn't me who knew it - though I have come across them before - you can find the AdCal data sheets online...

[Cinka in reply to piglette]

You poor thing!.. 😮

[SheffieldJane in reply to SheffieldJane]

No no Piglette! I was prescribed Adcal huge bullets, couldn't swallow them and was then prescribed a chewable version that tastes quite pleasant. Please tell me you didn't??

Sorry for my muddled message.😦

[piglette in reply to SheffieldJane]

Ahh!! I haven't tried chewing them yet. I will carry on with the large bullets. They are quite smooth bullets on the other hand.

[Slosh]

Thanks Sheffieldjane - appreciate your input. I will ask for some. Yes I actually think that I have overdone it just recently.

[HeronNS]

Where had you immigrated from - to? Protocol regarding supplements etc will vary from place to place. Also availability of DXA scan.

And, yes, getting enough rest at this stage of your journey is really important.

[Slosh in reply to HeronNS]

Thanks HeronNS - I am so grateful for this group and the way everyone so kindly says knowledge and experience. I am Zimbabwean but came from South Africa. I had a DXA scan at the beginning of my diagnosis at the beginning of February.

[HeronNS in reply to Slosh]

Slosh, so you must be in the UK now? I'm in Canada, but, coincidentally, I was born in Zimbabwe, long ago when It was still Southern Rhodesia. In Canada since age 6, with many countries in between SR and here. I've found this forum, and Patient forum, to have been a real lifeline. I'm feeling quite well now, so it's true that in a year's time you'll look back and see how far you've come. I've been 22 months on PMR/pred journey so far.

[Slosh in reply to HeronNS]

Oh wow HeronNS - that's so interesting and hello fellow Rhodesian. Yes it was also Southern Rhodesia when I was born. So you must have left shortly after you were born if you got to Canada at age 6 and there were plenty of countries in between that. Yes, your are right - this forum is a life line. Thanks for the encouragement.

[HeronNS in reply to Slosh]

Yep. Included Malawi (Nyasaland), Kenya, England, Guernsey and Sark. In following years as a rather unhappy child I looked on the five months in the Channel Islands as the golden age of my childhood. My sixth birthday was around the time of the Queen's coronation so almost all my gifts were coronation memorabilia. Arrived in Canada after a lengthy transatlantic crossing late January 1954.

[Slosh in reply to HeronNS]

Oh wow that was quite a few countries in s short space of time!

[karools16 in reply to Slosh]

Hello Slosh. I am also from S.Africa. Been in UK 17 years.Where in the UK are you?

[Slosh in reply to karools16]

Hi Karools16 (wondered about that name). I am in London. But only been here two years. Have moved around a bit working as a live in Carer gor the elderly . Couldn't find something in my profession when I came over.

[karools16 in reply to Slosh]

Hello Slosh. I came in 2000 to be a live-in carer with people with various forms of Dementia. I am in Norfolk. PMR AND gca STOPPED MY WORKING CAREER IN 2006. dO YOU WANT TO SEND A PRIVATE MESSAGE, and then we can 'chat'?

[Slosh in reply to karools16]

Yes - do I just search your name on forum?

[HeronNS in reply to Slosh]

Click on Karools name to go to the page where you can message.

[karools16 in reply to HeronNS]

You beat me to it, HeronNS!