Major test
A major test of the prednisone experiment came up when P’s mother had a second stroke (she had her first stroke in 1995, which left her left side completely paralysed) at the end of July and died two days later without regaining consciousness. Although we were all devastated at her loss, I don’t think anyone believes her death was anything but a release from the massive amount of pain she’s endured over the past few decades. Arthritis is a horrible condition – and she had suffered from both osteo- and rheumatoid forms for over 30 years (one of P’s earliest memories was going to see her in hospital when she had her first knee replacement).
The prednisone helped when we first heard about her stroke (and dropped everything to rush down to the hospital, as we knew she didn’t want to survive a second stroke), when we were told she had died, even when we took P’s dad to register the death (by which time as well as being in massive amounts of pain, I would normally also have been blubbing like a baby, but the prednisone appeared to allow me to stay reasonably composed) – but didn’t really count on the effects of the funeral, which was about as painful as the stress-related pain had ever been. But at least I had the sense to keep my electro-acupuncture pen with me.
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