Today, I called Doug's primary care doctor about some of the symptoms he's been having. He suggested we come to the office around 11:15am. The doctor evaluated Doug and suggested we head to the ER at Presbyterian Plano for ASAP blood tests and EKG. The blood tests and ekg were all normal. His potassium was 4.1. It was great as a matter of fact! His blood pressure is high 169/91 and pulse rate was 119 in the ER but they discharged him with that and attributed it to the anxiety. Fix the anxiety and all the symptoms "should" get better. The problem has been finding something to take care of the anxiety.
Doug's anxiety is attributed to the "steroid induced psychosis" caused from being on the high dose prednisone for so long. His Zoloft (for depression) has been increased from 25mg to 50mg and they changed his anxiety medication from Xanax to Ativan (lorazepam) 1mg every 8 hours.
I've also placed a call to a psychiatrist in Plano. I think we need professional help related to the anxiety and the medication management of this part of the illness.
We've also started the process for short term disability, as we do not know how long these symptoms will progress. Dr Cohen is sure, these symptoms will subside once the prednisone taper is completed and when Doug's adrenal glands start producing steroids on their own. I talked with the HR person at DeLaRue today and she will start the necessary paperwork with UNUM and let us know by email our next steps.
Stay tuned!
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