Hi everyone. I thought you might enjoy this poem I asked ChatGPT to write about the steroid struggle. I prompted it with this: "Write a rhyming poem from the perspective of a patient with PMR struggling with their dose of prednisone. Make it have a hopeful ending." I posted this a while back on a PMR Facebook group and many people liked it. (If you're in the UK you can replace "prednisone" with "prednisolone".)
"An Ode to Prednisone"
In mornings of despair I woke,
With limbs that ached and heart that broke,
My body's plea was hard to bear,
The curse of PMR was here.
With every step, a battle waged,
The fiery pain was unassuaged,
Until one day, a miracle found,
The wondrous drug that would unbound.
Oh Prednisone, my saving grace,
You took away the pain that chased,
My days of suffering, you dismissed,
Your sweet relief I could not resist.
Yet as the days and months rolled by,
I found your touch was not so kind,
A double-edged sword you proved to be,
Both healing and hurting, simultaneously.
Moon face days and sleepless nights,
The hunger pangs, the inner fights,
Weakened bones, the fragile skin,
With every dose, I feared not win.
A taper down, my goal in sight,
A seemingly endless years-long fight,
Reducing dosage, symptoms back,
Starting over, another attack.
A dance of tapering, high and low,
A never-ending ebb and flow,
Oh Prednisone, I've come to see,
A bittersweet dependency.
But in this battle, hope remains,
A future free from inflammation's chains,
I cling to faith that one day soon,
I'll dance beneath the silver moon.
Oh Prednisone, I'll walk with thee,
Reluctantly, yet necessarily,
And when the day comes to part ways,
I'll bid farewell to your bittersweet haze.
In you, both my miracle and curse,
The answer and the problem versed,
I'll walk the line with you, my friend,
But soon I'll reach this journey's end.
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