Hi Guys

Not too much new to report. I have occasional light herxes which wax an wane: slight dizziness at times, occasional cough and occasional running sinuses – none of which are that noticeable.

Both Helena and I are training hard towards out karate grading which is to be held on 28^th March – fingers crossed.

When I was on Prednisone in 2002 and again early in 2003, I went up in weight something terrible. I went up from around 78 Kg  to 90 Kg – some of it may have been due to fluid retention but most of it was due to the fact that I was permanently extremely hungry. I just couldn’t stop eating – it felt what I imagine pregnancy cravings would be like.

Once I stopped prednisone and started the MP late 2003, the weight stayed. I remember going to the barbers to get my hair cut, and I was horrified – I just didn’t recognise my own reflection.

I decided to give the MP a chance for a while to see if things would balance themselves out. Although my appetite did reduce significantly, my weight didn’t change – at least it didn’t go up, but it didn’t go down either.

I then put myself on a strict calorie controlled diet at the end of 2004 and it took me 6-months to go back down to 78 Kg. I went off the diet and eventually settled at 80 Kg – which I was fairly happy with.

Before the MP, I had an uncontrollable high blood pressure which averaged out at about 170/105. After a while on the MP, my blood pressure settled down to an average of 90/60 – great!!

Since December 2006, I have resumed the diet with a target weight of around 70 Kg. I wanted to do this because of my impending karate grading – my rationale was that I could only do about 30-mins of strenuous exercise and I need to increase my stamina so that I can do about 2-hours of strenuous exercise in order to be successful in my grading. I figured that by reducing my weight, I would reduce the pressure on my cardio-vascular system by being lighter on my feet.

I am now at 72 Kg and I am exercising with an exercise bike for 20-minutes every morning, and I am training karate every day between 1-hour a day to around 3-hours a day, depending on how busy I am with work and other duties. It is working and I am now up to being able to do strenuous exercise for just over an hour. I have 7-weeks to build up to the 2-hours necessary.

But, I am now experiencing increased herx in terms of running sinuses, increased cough and increased dizziness – not a show stopper, but noticeable.

When I get a dizzy spell, I sink down to my knees and bend my head forward until it passes (not an altogether unpleasant experience). Last Sunday, I had a powerful dizzy spell and I actually feinted after a little rest in bed and getting up a little too quick to go to the toilet. Helena was absolutely beside herself with worry but I managed to calm her down saying that I must have gotten up to quick and that low BP is quite normal on the MP.

I agreed to get my BP tested, which I did yesterday, and it read 79/48 with a pulse around 80.

Otherwise, all is good.

Cheers

Guss

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