Rocks and Hard Places

I’ve run a gamut of other problems since January’s reattachment surgery. I’ve discussed the cause and effects of the prednisone that I needed to drop in my eye. Prednisone is a steroid that is as much miracle drug as aspirin, and it is the only medication I have ever taken that has given me bad effects.
Discussing the bad effects with the eye doctor who did the surgery and prescribed the prednisone seems to have extended my reputation as a bad patient. That doctor insisted that the side effects I was feeling, particularly the nausea and vomiting of excess stomach acid production, were signs of other diabetic problem. I’m not such a believer in coincidence, given the timing of the problems’ onset. The doctor insisted that the dose was small while ignoring any research I has asked about that cited eye drops as one of the most potent absorption of medication. After two months of discussing this with her, I got allowance to discontinue the medication.
The side effects subsided. I can only wonder what has happened to medical training that every doctor argues with me when I report and effect of some sort of treatment. I simply pay attention to how I feel and what is going on with my body and the timing in which things change and develop. Why does this make me a difficult patient?
My blood pressure plummeted, the nervous tics diminished, vertigo became less of an issue, and my stomach seemed to pump acid back at normal levels, enough that fruit and proteins were not making the tummy erupt. The timing of improvement coincided exactly with the discontinuation of the prednisone, so I can only beat my head against a wall and wonder why every such thing had to be an argument with almost every doctor. I don’t claim to know more or be smarter than the docs. I just pay attention to my body and report what things do to me personally rather than generalized statistics.
My follow up with this good eye doctor is tomorrow, but I have already resumed the prednisone. As it turns out, the steroid–and not times, inactivity following the reattachment surgery, or another factor–caused that sudden recession of swelling in the Charcot foot. Pain and swelling both resumed with a vengeance. It’s worth the ill effects to have the legs slightly more usable.
My eye and foot doctors alike just need to be prepared for a difficult patient if either or both try to tell me that the leg condition is caused by something else entirely and that the timing of stopping and resuming the prednisone is strictly coincidental.