Liz Earle - the person

[SisterBliss]

Thanks for sharing, that sounds unpleasant. Sorry to persist, but how do steroids kill you? Heart attack? Why would her GP keep prescribing them if they were (& did as you say) kill her? Thanks again for sharing - need to keep my Mom healthy!

 

[iloveshopping]

I’m childless. I had hot flushes, terrible acne going through puberty. Adult acne until treated in my forties. Heavy periods, loads of fibroids, hysterectomy. HRT to allow me to continue to work. Then a fibroadenoma in the breast so stopped the HRT. Now hideous hot flushes in my sixties. LOL When I read this back seems bad but it was bearable. Into my third year of hot flushes and find them difficult to tolerate.

 

[Twilight]

Thanks for sharing, that sounds unpleasant. Sorry to persist, but how do steroids kill you? Heart attack? Why would her GP keep prescribing them if they were (& did as you say) kill her? Thanks again for sharing - need to keep my Mom healthy!

It's probably a sweeping statement but I think the UK is a nation of pill poppers & a nation of doctors who prescribe quite freely. A close friend is a practice nurse & says their elderly patients get repeat prescriptions without regular reviews & if they are called in for one they have a strop. Our body's needs change all the time & someone who required medication for high blood pressure in their 50s may not require it after retirement. Someone very close to us is terminally ill & taking a heavy dose of steroids, his wife watches him closely & he has an amazing gp who is also monitoring him, awareness is paramount.

 

[maymorganlondon]

It's probably a sweeping statement but I think the UK is a nation of pill poppers & a nation of doctors who prescribe quite freely. A close friend is a practice nurse & says their elderly patients get repeat prescriptions without regular reviews & if they are called in for one they have a strop. Our body's needs change all the time & someone who required medication for high blood pressure in their 50s may not require it after retirement. Someone very close to us is terminally ill & taking a heavy dose of steroids, his wife watches him closely & he has an amazing gp who is also monitoring him, awareness is paramount.

I'm so sorry to hear about your friend. Horrible for his wife, but it also takes a tool on others which isn't always recognised. I hope the steroids help him to life as fully, comfortably and long as he wants, in his situation.

 

[maymorganlondon]

Thanks for sharing, that sounds unpleasant. Sorry to persist, but how do steroids kill you? Heart attack? Why would her GP keep prescribing them if they were (& did as you say) kill her? Thanks again for sharing - need to keep my Mom healthy!

Steroids are often prescribed for asthma, and they can affect the heart. Sometimes there are no easy choices: you can have your chronic health condition limit your life, and how you live it...or you can take a medication that will allow you to do more, with the risk the show ends earlier than you might like. Call it the lesser of two evils, if you will.

 

[donna255]

I have had asthma since childhood and had to go on steroids many times over the years. I remember when you had to ween the dose down before stopping. They can also affect your kidneys.

I remember as a teenager having to go into hospital because of bronchial pneumonia and an elderly lady was also in the small ward with us. She said never let them give you steroids they will kill you in the end. Frightened the crap out of me. When they moved me to steroid inhalers I was freaking out and the doctor had to talk me around and getting me to actually use them. Way back you took tablets every day for asthma