dexamethasone-please help advice!

Help i am taking DEXAMETHASONE 6mg BD , then 4mg BD, then down to 2mg bd- since they stopped giving it to my via IV in hospital my eyes sight has gone double visio and i cant focus- Will it calm down???

Im aslo being given something called Levemepromazine in a quarter dose that ive just read can cause bipolar!

I cant sleep at all my insomnia ia skyhigh and that with the Dexamethasone im seriously at the end of my tether, the blurred double vision…i cant drive or focus this is amking em feel sick and totally vulnerable and alone.

Please please did anyone have to contact their palative team with this what was the outcome??

Im getting very distressed 

Hi Lynn - I see we are both up early!

When I had FEC chemo I had to stop taking my normal chemo, methotrexate, for Crohn’s as the Oncologist said I would die of septicaemia if I took both drugs at the same time - I fled the room in tears and nearly didn’t have the FEC chemo. I got another Oncologist, a young female GP who worked one day a week in the Oncology suite who was brilliant. My Crohn’s flared so bad I was totally faecally incontinent and virtually housebound. She put me on a daily dose, for the 4 months of FEC, of dexamethasone, 2mg. It didn’t cure the incontinence, but kind of held it so I could get the cancer treatment. She also prescribed Fortijuice (an elemental nutritional drink) as I could not eat any solid food. The problem was that neither my original Oncologist nor my gastroenterologist had treated a patient with concurrent breast cancer and Crohn’s and didn’t know what to do.

Any corticosteroid will alter your mood, with insomnia being a particular problem. I also had vision problems and had to have my prescription changed. Things did return to normal after I finished FEC and the dexamethasone.

Out of interest, why have you been prescribed dexamethasone? Perhaps it would be a good idea to contact your medical team, tell them of your side effects and see if they can change the meds to ones you can tolerate better.

So sorry to hear how worried you are, wish I could do more to help. Hopefully someone else will come along soon with better advice and experience.

Take care,
Liz.

Lynn - ring me. I sent you my home number yesterday and just now.
The levomepromazine is used for nausea and sickness in cancer patients. I’ve had it before. The low doses sre for that and the higher doses for mental health problems.
I;m taking several psychiatric tablets for nerve pain - 3 different types infact so don’t worry about that they think you’re mentally ill. The side effects of these drugs just help cancer patients at low doses that’s all.
Kate

Hi Lynn, hope things have settled a bit for you, its really crap taking those things, Ive had to take them after my brain surgerys and I cant wait to get rid of them, but they do seem to control the swelling, so hang in there Lynn. Love Suzy