The daily bLog
I’m encouraged this morning after having taken my first dose of prednisone (10 mg, 2x, every other day). I’m visualizing a happier, healthier tomorrow. I believe that I WILL lose the immobility, the weakness and the handicapping loss of strength in my jaw muscles. During these past eleven months, I’ve come to respect the tremendous amount of work-effort - in the scientific use of the word – these muscles produce to chop and grind our food. For so long my jaw hasn’t worked, I wonder what it will be like to bite into a piece of meat again and be able to chew it, to savor it and to swallow it.
Even though the body doesn’t work so well, the mind functions flawlessly. I constantly think about making pictures and riding my motorcycle. Pictures I can do right now. The bike will need to wait for “stronger” days.
The picture above is of phragmites at the edge of a wetland in winter. It was made in Richmond, Massachusetts. © 2006 Curt Miller
The Daily bLog
A new chapter in the treatment of my disease, myasthenia gravis, begins tomorrow. With symptoms thus far unabated, my neurologist has doubled my dosage of Lexapro (for anxiety) to help me cope better with future uncertainty. To help insure remission of symptoms by spring - as he assured me would happen - he has me starting on a regimen of 10mg of prednisone twice a day, every other day, as a boost and adjunct to the immunosuppressant drug CellCept that I've been on for 10 weeks.
My recent symptoms have included droopy eyelids, a neck sometimes so weak it can't support my head, weak arms and hands, inability to chew and swallow and occasional double vision. And, do you know what? I'm just as likely to laugh at myself. My own body serves as a constant reminder about how truly precious life is, and how important to savor each moment and to cherish the people we love.
The picture above is titled "Bad News" and was made in Oneonta, New York sometime in the 1990s. © 2006 Curt Miller
This picture was made outside Boulder, Colorado in July 1998. It was made with a Leica M5 on a tripod with a 50mm Summicron lens. It was taken on Agfa 25 asa film and printed in the chemical darkroom. © 2006 Curt Miller
The Daily bLog
This is my first try at blogging, so I thought I'd just keep it short and add one of my pictures...just to see how it all comes together.
The daily bLog
