Mondays are always a good jumping off point.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a low point for me. I've had all manner of medical procedures over the last five years and none of them have seen me this weak and reduced to such an invalid state. Never have I been left to get progressively worse while waiting for someone to get around to seeing me. If anyone else woke one morning that ill, they would call an ambulance. I coughed so hard as I lay in bed that started to vomit. The act of jumping out of bed and rushing to the bathroom almost made me pass out before I completed the five metre journey. From there it was a challenge as to what took priority. Breathing, coughing, vomiting or maintaining consciousness.

I'll move on...

The Moraxella Catarrhalis infection is gone. I still have several weeks worth of antibiotics to take so I don't believe there is a risk of it flaring up again. So there is nothing really stopping me from starting on Prednisone and kicking this pneumonitis in the butt other than the wait for the appointment on the 17th Dec, or if I'm lucky a phone call on Thursday to advise me I can start treatment.

I woke this morning feeling a heck of a lot better than yesterday. This is of course relative to me. Feeling better while laying flat on ones back in bed is nothing at all like the feeling better of a man that can actually get out of said bed, shower, dress himself and not collapse in a breathless, wheezing heap.

Anyway I lay there and stared at the ceiling for a while, and thought "damn it" I'm not going to let myself be pile-driven into the ground! I'm going to reclaim my life and my health! It's been six months that I've been cursed with these darn fevers, cough and fatigue. Today it ends. !

So I did some research on the net and found a medical study on Cryptogenic Organising Pneumonia. The recommended starting dose is .75mg per kilogram of patient weight daily. That works out at 52mg of prednisone. 60mg is the figure I heard the doctor mention a couple of weeks ago, So that tallies up correctly.

I went into my medicine cabinet and counted out my remaining stockpile of prednisone, forty eight 20mg tablets. That's 16 days worth. I see the doctor in ten days so I have enough.
If he phones on Thursday and tells me I cannot start taking the steroid then I will have only taken four doses and I could stop taking them without the need for a long withdrawal period. If he says I can start, then I will be four days ahead and so much the better off for it.

Yeah I know, it's a very naughty thing to self medicate. But hey it was me that diagnosed my condition in the first place, it was me that correctly self prescribed the prednisone that worked so well, if only for the short courses that I took them.

So there, I done it, I've taken the tablets and life will get a whole lot better as from today.
If the doctors don't like it then I shall invite them to spend a day in my shoes and we see how long they last before they write their own script too! :)

As always I'll keep you updated on my progress.