Research and development in pharmaceuticals are really fascinating. How they come up with these products, test them, name them and get them approved obviously is complex and lengthy.

Prior to coming in here. I was on one medication a day and now I’m on probably 20. I’ve certainly prescribed thousands of different types of medications. I’m always curious about the mechanism of action, as well as the side effects. Sometimes the mechanism the actions aren’t completely clear and there’s overlap in what diseases they can be used for.

Drugs can be quite effective. One drug an anti-nausea drug, Zofran, is actually magical. At the beginning of my hospitalization, I had a lot of nausea. When this drug was given intravenously, the symptoms resolved within 10 minutes. Just like magic!

Prednisone, a steroid drug, is a quite interesting drug. It’s used for a variety of inflammatory diseases. It’s highly effective but has severe side effects. These include bone loss and muscle mass loss. It can also raise your serum glucose. Fortunately, my blood sugars have been fine. However, the effect of the muscles is dramatic. It’s almost as though the muscles are wasting away. In addition, calcium is bleaching from my body and I’m taking a load of calcium each day. Most importantly, this drug makes you retain fluid. It causes more fat to be laid down in your fat tissue layer. This happens in areas such as your face and abdomen. It turns your face round, gloves like really. Interestingly, my very wrinkled face is now smooth. Shaving has taken on a different form. It is actually much easier to shave now. My face has become more plump, and the wrinkles are now flat. I wouldn’t consider an anti-aging drug, but temporarily my face never looked better. I’d rather have tried Botox or take my wrinkles over the other side effects.

The other drug that I’m taking is a cyclophosphamide. This is a very potent immuno suppressant. It’s really an evil drug. It’s so evil that they have to have two nurses sign off on it. The nurses wear gloves to deliver it to me. I told the nurse it’s very odd that they wear gloves, but I put it into my body. It has a host of negative side effects, at this point, and down the road. It promotes tumor growth, specifically bladder cancers, which by you must have lifelong monitoring after taking the drug. It can also cause pulmonary fibrosis later in life, which is a horrible disease. However, it’s needed to quench this massive inflammatory response, which is overtaking my body.

Now I’m not sure about all the other medications they give me. I have a host of vitamins and calcium. There are also drugs that prevent certain types of pneumonia because of my immunosuppression. Each meal there is approximately 10 pills I must take. The calcium pills are huge. These are difficult to swallow. One of the medications for pneumonia prophylaxis comes in a tub. It looks like yellow paint and tastes horrible. I have to suck it down with a straw. I don’t know who invented that drug. It’s a loser. However, perhaps it’s saving my life by preventing pneumonia. I just don’t know.

Anyway, today is day 13 out of 14 of the plasmapheresis. I will complete them on Tuesday and plan my escape hopefully by Wednesday afternoon after I have a dialysis treatment. Looking forward to getting home!

Have a pleasant day. Stay warm!!