Snow outside the window

A week into the therapy, I wouldnt say I'm feeling better or worse, but different. My body is definitely reacting to the drug, and its no wonder in the high dose I get (1 mg/kg body weight; I take 50 mg). To put it in perspective, when I took it as part of chemo, I got 100 mg for 3 days in a row, every 3 weeks. Now taking half that amount EVERY DAY for up to 9 months, just seems crazy!

This therapy has given me major swings of ups and downs, in not only mood but how I'm feeling from day to day. I am coughing more, sometimes productive, but mostly a very dry cough. Good news is I am breathing better, able to take deeper breaths.

Today I got scared as I noticed a crackling sound when I coughed more forcefully.. Then we realized Konrad could feel this when he lay his hand on my back near the bottom of the left lung and felt 'bubbles'. A quick visit to the family doctor calmed me down as he said it could just be a pulled muscle beneath the lung; the lungs still sound clear. A relief.

What is concerning to me is that 2 days in a row now, 2 hours before my scheduled daily dose of prednisone, I got sudden-onset headache, ear ache in both ears, and a fever of 38.5 C that lasts a few hours. Otherwise, throughout the day and night, I do not have fever since I started this drug.
 
Overall we had a calm nice weekend, a lot of family time, sadly Karolek developed a cold though, and has a runny nose and is sneezing. Poor little guy, his first cold in over a year, but we've enjoyed many movies and down-time on the couch as mommy and he stay in and out of the cold winter weather. Its nice to watch the snow come down outside the window.

We're also slowly starting to feel the Christmas spirit. Today, December 6th, we celebrate the tradition of Saint Nikolas Day, Karolek scrubbed his rubber boots and lay them at his bedside in hopes that Saint Nick would come and leave him a gift. If he had been a good boy that is. Sure enough he woke to a little gift in each shoe. Then it turns out that St. Nick also left gifts at each of the grandparents houses intended for our little Karolek ;) So our boy was all smiles and now he's anxiously counting down on his Christmas calendar (the one with the daily chocolates) to the 24th, so he can leave Santa Claus milk and cookies and he hopes to hear the reindeer on the roof. A few weeks til Christmas, I hope I am feeling more stable with all these symptoms soon...

Paulina