Still trying not to let prednisone get the best of me

(Updated! Search for "NFL" or "Rush Limbaugh")

I celebrated Columbus Day by watching the parade in New York City with my grandmother; treating her to an old-fashioned Italian sausage-hot dog, potato sandwich… and bird-dogging a Mercedes Benz for miles along the Garden State Parkway.

Hey, the driver started it! I hate excuses for reactions, but this was a prednisone-influenced response. The mood altering affects of the pharmaceutical had been at bay for weeks. However, things have changed in the past 10 days or so. Do not know why.

The drug I need right now to suppress sarcoidosis symptoms sometimes make me feel like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Jekyll is usually in control, but Hyde sometimes wins. And he won at about 11:30 a.m. Monday just north of exit 105 of the ‘Jersey Parkway.

The day was sunny. The autumn color lining the road is at peak. Few people were out because Columbus Day is a state holiday. I was in my Volkswagen GTI heading to my grandmother’s house to help her with chores and run errands. I was listening to some King’s X , drinking a cup coffee, driving along in the slow lane and –...

Who is this idiot trying to run me off the road? I am in the right-hand lane, the slow lane, because I am trying to chill, for heaven's sake. All of a sudden, I am being pushed to do 70, 75 miles per hour.

I put down the coffee, duck into the left lane and down shift so this idiot in the Mercedes, this jackass with NY plates can blow past me. I then lurch back into the right-land lane and punch the gas…Now my car is a black, turbo-energize missile heading straight for his tail pipe.

The Mercedes driver, some silver-haired, I-am-so-cool-I-wear-my-collar-up old coot, sees me in his rear view mirror. I am flipping him a brown bird. He is scared.

He should be. The chase is on. At least for a few more exits. I eventually let him go.

And I am embarrassed by my behavior. The guy in the Mercedes was rude, but I did not have to stoop to his level. Prednisone makes it tougher to be level headed.

Right now, I need the drug to suppress my immune system, keeping my sarcoidosis at bay. Without the drug, the disease allows my immune system to go haywire, attacking vital organs, in my case the heart and the lungs.

Prednisone is a corticosteroid and has been called a wonder drug used to treat many problems, including arthritis, lupus, and lung diseases. However, it comes with a laundry list of side effects, including mood swings, weight gain, blurry vision, ravenous appetite, diabetes, insomnia, thinning skin. These are not even the most serious side effects. The goal is to get the benefits of the drug and get off it before problems that are more serious develop, including glaucoma and osteonecrosis.

I felt like things were pretty much under control but of late. I have been especially moody, happy, sad, angry, euphoric, sometimes all at once! And I am constantly hungry. I will eat anything. Anything. Anything. I am in a constant fight NOT to eat. And the prednisone beast is not satisfied with celery. The fattier the food the better.

I am taking 30 mg of prednisone a day, down from 60. I am hoping my team of docs will cut the dosage again. I would love to get down to 10 mg daily. I have read that side effects are negligible at that dosage.

I want to get to the point where I do not take any prednisone. I want to be as close to normal as I can get.

There are tens of thousands of people out there taking this drug, some people are taking much more than I am taking. I can’t imagine being on a higher dosage than 60 mg. The dosage made me wildly creative – I shared some of my fiction with a couple of friends and they seemed to enjoy it.

However, the dosage also made me feel like I wanted to get into a fight with a Mack truck. Pity the truck.

After terrorizing that poor motorist, I finally got to my grandmother’s place in Elizabeth. I took her to the drug store; we got a bite to eat at an Italian sandwich shop on Jersey Avenue.

I could feel her watching my interaction with the man at the booth - it's a tiny, outdoor sandwich shop - and with a couple of cops who were ordering food.

“You are easy and nice,” my grandmother said. “You are a nice young man.”

“Thank you, Gram,” I said.

However, I do not think I am so nice, especially on prednisone.

But I will try harder.

Biz partners sack Rush's NFL ownership attempt

During the fall, I live for American football, especially NFL games. Go Giants!

I like the game because it is tough and brutal and smart. Not everyone can play a and I marvel at the strategy and performances. I also like the game because it comes close to the American ideal. People excel based on their deeds and merit, not the color of their skin or because they know someone. Can you catch it, throw it, run it? Can you block or defend the run or pass? Then you play.

We’re seeing greater diversity among players, too. Sixty-seven percent are black, but there are whites, Samoans, Hispanics.

We are even seeing diversity in ownership and in the top management of the league and the individual teams and the game is popular the world over.

The NFL is far from perfect. More could be done for injured players – the league has to own up to the concussion controversy; it could stop penalizing individual expression; it could make more opportunities for coaches, quarterbacks and executives of color. But the league demonstrates that diversity works and is good for the bottom line.

That is why I am happy that Rush Limbaugh will not become even a partial owner of an NFL team. The NFL product has the ability to draw people from across demographic. Limbaugh’s vitriol divides.

Is Limbaugh a bigot? I can’t see his heart, but I have heard some of his words. When it comes to black athletes, he has sounded like a cretin.

I have yet to see where any of his thoughts or philosophies benefit people who are minorities of any strip (racially, sexually, etc.), or are disfranchised. If it’s out there, post it at the bottom of this blog for all to see. I would love to see any constructive thing he may have said.

If Limbaugh is a bigot, he must be salivating at the chance to own a piece of a company that includes blacks toiling on a field. Keep him out of the NFL owners’ booth. That means people of every race, color and creed can support the league without supporting him.