Medication Update – SIDE EFFECTS!

So if there is one thing that I wish I had more information about it was the side effects of the medications that I was on. The doctors at the hospital kept telling me about how nasty steroids were and how many side effects they would have, and don’t get me wrong, I believed what they were saying but they were certainly sketchy on some of the other details. They told me that steroids can give you a bit of acid reflux kind of thing which is why they were putting me on Lansoprazole (sensible) and that it can affect your bones if you are on it for a while (hence the Ad-Cal too). What they didnt mention was that it also causes a lot of other things which I seemed to find out more and more when I got home… 

When I got home I started having these horrible headaches, I put it down to a lack of sleep, not enough hydration, all sorts of things! I also started feeling quite shaky completely randomly, I would be doing something and my muscles in my legs would just start to shake. Again I put this down to not having used my legs for a while and them getting used to walking around a lot more. I started to feel mildly like a beached whale, but in a weird way, putting on weight in a way that I never had done before. I was constantly hungry, like no food was ever enough. I became super emotional, oh my, poor Jordan. One minute I would be all happy, about 20 seconds later at the most minor of inconveniences I would be fuming and then I would just start crying because it was all too much. Again I put this down to a lack of sleep and generally feeling a little bit off kilter with life and so feeling really out of control. 

With all of these things starting to add up, I checked out the side effects of steroids and low and behold, literally all of these things were side effects of steroids and would go away as the dose was reducing. It would have been really nice that rather than saying “we can’t leave you on steroids for too long as they have really nasty side effects”, they actually told me some of the things to look out for. 

Another and more distressing of the side effects for me (and I am sure a lot of young women) is the hair growth that comes along with steroids. Usually I am someone that desperately tries to persuade myself that the side effects won’t happen to me. However, when I read the hair growth one I of course immediately went to look in the mirror and convinced myself I was now a woman with a beard and side burns and I was never going to be the same. 

Cue a number of texts to Jordan telling him that he was now going to have to date a fat bearded woman (did I mention that steroids can make you super emotional super quickly?) and he was reassuring enough. Once I had calmed a little to think rationally about the whole situation, I spoke to Mum and we talked about the possibility of having laser hair removal surgery after this is all over and we both agreed that it was a definite possibility if the hair remained but that I should probably not panic too much and should do some research. So I went away and ask some people some questions and people seem to think that the side effects will go away once the treatment course is over. This was a massive relief to me. 

I know that it might sound incredibly vain to be worrying about a few stray hairs here and there and at the end of the day, it really is not the end of the world and everything is fixable. Even with a less permanent solution than laser hair removal you can easily find methods to be able to get rid of excess hair but it really bothered me! It’s totally OK to be bothered by the small things! I was aware that likely the weight gain and the shakes would stop when the medication stopped but hair growth felt more permanent and I was not a fan. 

Anyway, enough rambling about being a fat bearded woman, there is a solution to both of those problems. Moral of the story I guess is that when they were talking about “horrible side effects” I probably should have asked them to be a little more specific in what to watch out for. It would have been nice to think that they might have just told me themselves so then I could have asked questions about longevity but I guess when the doctors are trying to ensure your insides aren’t inflamed, they aren’t really worrying about some hairs on your chin…

I will keep you updated on the side effects and whether they do truly go away or not! It is an important one to know and quite possibly one that the doctors will not tell you about. Again, this is all personal experience!