You know you are dealing with steroids when you go to the shopping centre and ask your child "Bianca, would you like to go look at the toys?" and she says "no, I want to go look at New World (a grocery store) and look at food".
Today (Saturday) is the last day of this month for steroids (until next month again). This month was tougher than usual and although we had a pretty easy start, things did get a bit tougher towards the end of the week. Oh fun!
On Thursday Bianca had a fun Olympics Day at her school. It was just a bit of fun, but all the kids were put in different teams and then they all participated in the different activities. Bianca had great fun, and it was cool to be able to go and watch, so I followed Bianca's group as they went from activity to activity.
For most of the day Bianca was pretty happy, but towards the end, she started crying and when I asked her what was wrong she said "I don't know" and of course then she became pretty clingy. Several teachers and parents wanted to know what was wrong and all I could do was give them a little smile and say "steroids...".For most of the week, Bianca woke up around 5am wanting food, so we've been leaving a little container with things for her to eat at that time. Then this morning she came into our room at her usual 5am / 5:30am wanting to know if it was time to get up and I replied "not yet". Then at around 6am Caitlyn called and then I had no choice but to get up. So we got up and made breakfast and first Bianca ate around 5 slices of toast and then some Milo Cereal with milk. At around 9am we went out to the shops and promptly at 10:30 Bianca declared "I'm really hungry for Subway". As soon as she was done, she immediately said "I'm still hungry".
In many respects we have it quite easy when it comes to dexamethasone. Bianca rarely gets what they call "roid-rage" where the kids get these terrible temper tantrums. I mean I've seen some kids get temper tantrums just because they are spoilt and naughty, but unfortunately it is quite a bad side-effect of the dexamethasone, so we've been lucky. But we do get Bianca being more emotional than usual and certainly Thursday was such a day with her pretty sad and clingy. And this time round we've definitely had the bigger appetite and constant hunger side-effects. And as many other parents of oncology kids on steroids will say, kids develop very particular cravings that will infiltrate their thinking, their play, their discussions - food, food, food.
So I am really really glad that we are all done with Dex for this month.
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3 comments:
It's not just kids that throw tantrums on Dex - I've ruined the odd function with my rants that go on and on.
Fortunately dropping down from 4mg to 2mg tomorrow and then to none a week from that - phew!
And to think I was on 24mg at one stage - boy did I just eat the fridge out several times over.
I am laughing because I Can so relate to the 5 pieces of toast and then still wanting more!
I tell people half the month Tristan eats more then a grown man and a half! And the other half I hear "I am full" after two bites. Right now he barely eats. People think I should make him when we are at picnics and others houses. I just smile and say not a chance. I said this half of the month he is barely eating and shrinking in size, as I speak his pants are falling down - ones that months ago could not button! The other half of the month I am a slave to his food orders. Not a chance will I worry about him not eating a meal because he wants to play with friends!
We can relate!
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