As most of you already know, I was put on prednisone because of breathing difficulties. We’ve tried to lower the dose and make it less frequent over the… months and years that it has become increasingly more problematic, but for me it seems like the side effects have drastically been outweighing the good things that it does for me to the tune of reconsidering whether or not prednisone is a viable medication for me to take.

Well, in spite of using mouthwash one to two times a day and brushing twice a day, I managed to get a sudden gum and jaw infection. As it became increasingly more uncomfortable, I began drinking soda and water from straws and sticking to softer foods like chicken noodle soup and ramen (that Bub doesn’t lovingly steal from me because now he loves ramen). Because it came on within a day and a half of starting prednisone once again for something that was very necessary, it was — as it should have been — attributed to prednisone. So now I am on two antibiotics meant to make it go away and fast so that I can resume eating more normally and so the infection doesn’t, well, spread. You know, since I’m immunosuppressed…

At any rate, I also learned something else: that people have read my blog well enough to know that Bub is on Mirtazapine at night to help him sleep (which it does a beautiful job of, by the way, since he was clinically diagnosed with insomnia at age two), and Risperdal during the day to help decrease the violence of meltdowns and to stabilize his mood (and that works really well given where he was at when all of this… escalated to the point that he needed medication, which quite likely could have been kick-started by adolescence). Apparently they have some opinions on this, claiming that I “drug my kid(s)”. And although it’s kind of adorable that they read through my blog well enough to figure out that he’s on two different necessary medications prescribed by his care team, what would they rather me have him do? Be miserable because he can’t sleep? Cry because he can’t sleep? Quickly, and wildly, oscillate between moods and have meltdowns that hurt people? It sure seems fun for people to point fingers about how I supposedly “drug my kid(s)” when these are both medications recommended and prescribed by his care team, consensually taken by him every morning and evening. Sadly, this goes right back to the fact that even in 2022 (which has just barely started and already, people are wilding out for no good reason), people continue to medication shame and pill shame, which does nothing to support those with mental health illnesses… least of all actual kids.

If you’re jealous that Bub is clearly living his best life over here, by all means, just admit to being jealous.