I am so happy. Steroid heaven? I feel pretty darn good and can breath again! My mood is manic, though in the sense that I have gone from way down last Friday to a huge high this week, especially today. Wish it would stay this way, but I know that it won't. I guess I can settle for the happy medium, though, which is my usual state.Wow, steroids (yes, I seem to have a fascination with them) really do interesting things. Today, for example, while teaching, I heard myself use words that I had totally forgotten I even knew! Now the only word that I recall using is 'recidivism'. I know I used some other cool words as well. Then, as the morning steroid dose wore off, my 'words,' my beautiful words, left me and I found myself saying 'pelican' instead of penguin. It's so weird to realize that you've found something that you didn't even know you had lost. I didn't realize how much of my vocabulary is inaccessible until I heard myself using some of my 'old' words! Not that I have no vocabulary--I do or I couldn't write this journal. It's just that the higher part of my vocab. seems to have gone into hibernation.I also noticed another change with the steroids, but I'll be darned if I can recall what it was/is now! Obviously, memory is receeding backward again.  Oh, yeah, now I remember. My creativity. I noticed this evening, while composing a letter to family, that my 'wit' had returned. Again, I hadn't even realized that I had lost it! I have been an energetic, knowledgeable, happy teacher this week! Last week I thought I needed to quit and this week--totally different outlook. This roller coaster thing is not working for me, though. I need stablilty with my emotional state. I can't complain about my energy, though. It's amazing I can even function given the little sleep I've gotten over the past 7 days. Ah, a world of steroids. I fear a crash and if I do crash, it will happen probably at Thanksgiving. I am tapering off on the prednisone now and that is going well. I'm also going to taper off the nebulizer steroids when I finish the full week's course. I want to try to make sure to get completely well this time and not have to do this all over again. My steroid experience has made me realize that this drug can be quite helpful in alleviating or lessening the effects of MS. Strangely enough, though, I am experiencing more weakness on my left side--left leg and left arm particularly. Don't know why. I've had this for a couple of days now. Can steroids do this? I wouldn't think so. Oh, well, I see the neuro. on the 28th of this month and thank goodness I have this journal to assist my memory. After reading an article on Primary Progressive MS, I am thoroughly confused as to what my state is re MS. A person can actually have PP and be diagnosed wtih RR. PP progresses very slowly in some so that it looks like RR and advances quickly in others. CRAB drugs are starting to be prescribed for PP as they can't 'hurt' according to the article. If they work, wonderful. If they don't, they don't. The suggestion seemed to be that if a person has PP MS, he/she should consider giving the CRAB drugs a try and see if one of them helps. Makes sense. But the cost and side effects need to also be considered.I was quite surprised to learn that next week is Thanksgiving already! I thought we had another full week yet. Not that I mind a three day teaching week...It will give me a chance to catch up a bit and be with family, which is my favorite thing to do. I'm curious to see what tomorrow will bring. More mania? Sleep? Guess I'll have to wait and see.