Sometimes you just don’t know what life is going to bring. At other times, you have a very good idea what life is about to bring. When my wife and I visited the doctor a couple of weeks ago, and he directed her to start taking a course of steroids, I knew life was about to get fun. Not the kind of fun that people plan and hope to have, like on vacation or a family night out. I mean the tongue-in-cheek fun that normal people would be content to avoid. Since that afternoon we came home from the doctor, we’ve been on that ride through the fun house of altered states.
I am not without sympathy. I know that being on steroids can’t be fun. Still, the journey has not been without moments that bring smiles. For instance, I had to smile after the first 24 hours when she said, “I’ve figured out that the best time to take my daily dose is mid day. That way food and drink only taste nasty for half the day.” That’s sound reasoning, dear! Of course there is the irony of being constantly hungry and yet nothing tastes good. Then there is the issue of sleeplessness. It wasn’t long before I realized she was waking up in the middle of the night, sometimes remaining awake until morning. People at church last Wednesday thought I was cruel in making her come with me to church. They said to her, “Why aren’t you home resting?” Trying to channel my inner husband authority, I replied, “She needs to stay awake and get good and tired so she will sleep tonight!” I thought it sounded like a good plan. She didn’t sleep anyway. The upside is that we have reaped the reward of her sleeplessness. When she is out of bed at 5:30 in the morning, we get hot, homemade muffins for breakfast. Thanks honey!
The burst of energy has been entertaining to watch. She has kind of reminded me of the Tasmanian Devil of Looney Tunes. It is like she whizzes from room to room in a whirlwind of cleaning. She catches me just quietly watching her and smiling, and says, “Don’t laugh at me!” Just the other day as I observed her noticeably elevated level of energy, I said, “You know, it’s kind of like you are on drugs.” She replied emphatically, “I AM on drugs!” Yes dear, you are, and I know that the medicine is having unpleasant effects, but wow, is that kitchen clean!
The added levels of energy are not the only side effect of the medicine. One might also say that my wife has been just on the edge of grumpy. (I tried to say that as gently as I could.) Proverbs 21:9 says “It is better to live in a corner of a roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman.” I have had no desire to move to the roof, although my wife has probably had thoughts of putting me there herself. Actually she takes things in stride pretty well. She knows that the medicine makes her edgy, and she really does a good job of moderating that with others. Recently when we were talking just between the two of us, she confessed to me, saying, “I know I’ve been grumpy lately.” I guess a really good husband would have said, “No, dear, you haven’t been grumpy at all.” I couldn’t get my fingers crossed in time to say that, so I just said, “Well, yes, but that’s okay. If you need to be grumpy, do it with me. After all, I’m not going anywhere.”
The good news is that the steroids seem to be accomplishing their desired effect. While the ultimate result is yet to be seen, at least there has been some improvement. Further, life with a wife on steroids is not that bad. Yes, I wish she could sleep at night, and I wish food tasted better to her, and I wish some of the other side effects were not present. (No, I’m not surrendering the burst of cleaning!) Even on steroids, my wife is a precious jewel in the home, a faithful partner and constant friend. Sometimes the winding path of life gets a little bumpy. We have usually found that laughing helps, even when we feel like shouting or crying. God is good, all the time. I am thankful for my wife, and thankful that she WILL smile when she reads this 😀. Love you sweetie!
See you along the winding path…
The Winding Path 
I’m not sure how Rene will react, but you definitely have a way with words. Nicely done from one writer to another!
*Have you considered writing a book?
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I consider that worthy praise coming from you. And BTW, I had Rene read it before I posted it!
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Hi, I’m Bill Atkinson’s gf. The Catholic one. He asked me to see if I could find this, since I am on WordPress all the time. I did. Go, me! I showed it to him and he said to tell y’all that steroids cause sleeplessness, and he recommended taking the pill as early in the AM as possible. I did tell him about the food tasting yucky, but he said that I should reply from the woman’s perspective. I asked him if exercise helps. He said that I would say it would whether he said it did or not (I am a runner) . So, exercise helps. Besides, not eating is good for reducing the size of your jeans. This is my opinion, not to be attributed to William H. Atkinson, M.D., the big chicken. 😛
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Hi, I’m Bill Atkinson’s gf. The Catholic one. He asked me to see if I could find this, since I am on WordPress all the time. I did. Go, me! I showed it to him and he said to tell y’all that steroids cause sleeplessness, and he recommended taking the pill as early in the AM as possible. I did tell him about the food tasting yucky, but he said that I should reply from the woman’s perspective. I asked him if exercise helps. He said that I would say it would whether he said it did or not (I am a runner) . So, exercise helps. Besides, not eating is good for reducing the size of your jeans. This is my opinion, not to be attributed to William H. Atkinson, M.D., the big chicken. 😛
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🙂 Thank you Susan. Bill always has helpful input for us. My wife has had steroids before, just not the dosage. We pretty much knew what was coming. She has been able to start taking short exercise walks again, which is nice. Hopefully her doc will take her off the steroids soon. She goes to see him again next week, so we’ll see. Thanks for sharing!
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Heh, thanks. That’s one thing I have a lot of, is opinions. That’s pretty far from what Bill said you would say, but he does like to scare me. He also said that I should have said that not eating makes your jeans fit better, but that was just mean. Good luck to you and your wife, SLE is no picnic!
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