Hi to All,

Since being dx with EOAD in the fall of 2007 I have gained 35 pounds! I HATE being this fat! I haven't weighed this much in over 10 years. But, I can't seem to stop eating, either. The doctors keep saying it's the Prednisone I have taken in the past and then again recently. Can this be true?

Does anyone else have this problem? Is it emotional? Is it related to the meds?

Help me, please. I Hate looking in the mirror!

Lisa,
I can't answer all of your questions, but increased appetite (with weight gain) is one side effect of prednisone.

quote:

Originally posted by Lisa 428:
The doctors keep saying it's the Prednisone I have taken in the past and then again recently. Can this be true?

Help me, please. I Hate looking in the mirror!

Relax Lisa... The last photo I saw of you, you have no problem! If you have gained 35 pounds you needed every ounce to be healthy. My wife had to take predisone for more than 6 months in a row one time. Yes, she put on weight but she dosen't have that posion ivy any longer either. I love her more when she is happy and not hurting so we are both happy! One of our full length plastic mirrors bent length wise and it makes us look very thin, we are pleased!

Hi Lisa

I too have gained weight. In the tune of 45 lbs. At 5'8", I was a size 8 and have now "blossomed" to a size 14 (16 feels better)!

The doctor told me this is a side effect of the depression and the meds that I'm on. Believe me, I've asked for diet pills and shots, but, to no avail. You would think that if I was not "depressed" then, I would loose weight, thus, causing me to be somewhat "happy" with my physical self!

As far as eating? My only hunger is for foods that I can taste. Mexican, Italian, spicy Chinese and Japanese. And most importantly, Dark Chocolate.

I eat once maybe, twice a day. I know I need to exercise, but, the depression keeps me either in bed or on the couch! This is where I soo envy Alan and his ability to keep on exercising. See, Godzilla will have nothing on him!

Too bad we couldn't have a "virtual" exercise program where we can all participate together. Rooting each other on. You know, motivate us!

M

Mary & Lisa,

The medication I take for depression is Effexor XR. I have been on it for three years and never gained weight with it. I was on 150MG for about two years and when the good old Doc. told me I had EOAD he upped it another 75MG, and still no weight gain. I know I need to get out and do something besides just wanting to stay home. I was never that way before. Yesterday was a bad day for me I went around so confused all day. I get so restless and don't know what to do with myself. I don't even like talking on the phone that much anymore to friends, I do but it's not like before. It seems people are scared to talk about ALZ to me, maybe they don't know what to say.My husband trys his best to understand and I'm really lucky to have him. Mary I hope you are staying in touch with your kids, that helps. I know you hate being far away. Lisa I love your blog, I can't figure out how to log in.

Sharon

My appetite went downhill after being diagnosed,It's still not that good but some better.For a long time I drank red wine to whet my appetite but gained up to 182 lbs,i looked like & felt like a cow.I quit the drinking lost 50 lbs but then was dx with IBS.That is stable now & so is my weight.Was 142 the other day..........

Hi All,
Thanks for the input. I know I need to be more like Alan and exercise more it's just I can't get my heart around it. As for the prednisone, yea, it makes me hungry but hungry for the wrong foods! Sweets! I become a sweets-aholic!!
Never before in my life have a craved sweets like I do now! It's awful, and of course, I have NO self control! What happen to it?? I used to have good self control in many things including diet, weight, exercise, now I just can't seem to stay motivated! It's like this demon inside me (oh, could it be the EOAD?) or is that just an excuse??
Where's Alan when I need a therapist? lol

I Love You All,

Thanks from
the big, fat pig! oink!

Oh, my blog is

http://lcc-thoughtsfromtherollercoaster.blogspot.com/

Lisa, haven't you started Seroquel, too? A big dose of that, and an hour or two later I turn into a sugar-craving zombie for a while. No will power, just have to keep bad food out of the house. That's only for a little while, but dedicated eating machines don't need long.

I've still got a big old stomach. That's straight from my dad, and his dad, to always have a gut of some size. Too big now, but it isn't easy fighting a daily binge psychosis.

Alan et al,
Yes, I take seroquel. Is that the culprit??
Or is it just me without any self control? I hate that I don't have any self control when it comes to this binge eating! I've never had this problem before!

Gee Whiz, you'd think I could get some kind of a break on losses. I've lost so many things that I've stopped counting. Now, I've lost my figure along with some self esteem!

This sucks!

I need help! I just don' know what to do anymore!

Hey Lisa and All

How about a "virtual" exercise thread? Everyone participates but, we have one person who leads us!

What do you think?
M

Lisa, my stomach almost never feels hungry, for a couple of years now, due to neuropathy. Marijuana doesn't make me crave anything. But Seroquel . . . oh my, it is special. I bumped up 20 something pounds in the first few months after I started it. It has been a ridiculously difficult path, just losing part of it this Spring.

I've learned this much: Deciding now that we'll have will power later - - - well, it doesn't work with Seroquel. So clear your kitchen of bad foods. Hmm, clearing the kitchen of food, I can do that.

You've got to get your mojo back, Lisa. There's still time for a summer romance or two.

Mary, I can't picture what you're talking about. My fault, not yours! Would you explain more, please?

Hey Mary,
I'm a bit confused about this virtual exercise too. Please, tell me more!

Alan, I can clear the bad foods out but that Seroquel maniac will go out and buy ice cream or what ever!! Whenever!! Now what??

And:
Who wants a summer romance or any romance with a fat, absent-minded, angry, 55 year old female?

Come on, Alan, get real!

But Love ya for thinking that way!

quote:

And:
Who wants a summer romance or any romance with a fat, absent-minded, angry, 55 year old female?

Well, when you put it that way . . .

Alan,

I wish I had another way to put it! But, as usual, I'm brutally honest!

Lisa, I think you're saying that you wouldn't stoop to date anyone who would be interested in you today?

Thought borrowed from Groucho Marx, who said he'd never belong to any club that would take him as a member.

Alan/Lisa

I believe what I was getting at is

1st: Alan you lead. Tell everybody that we are going to start an exercise such as sit ups!

2nd: Alan, you tell the thread the counts (if anybody forgets the sequence, it's perfectly alright, I do it allllll the time! 1-up, 2-down
3-up, etc.!

This has been a couple days since posting. I think this is what I was talking about? Sorry can't really remember......alz moment!

M

Alan,

No, that's not what I mean.

I just can't imagine anyone being interested in this new me! This new me sucks! And from what I understand of this disease, it's just going to go downhill from here!

Mary,

I'm game except I'm not sure what to do.

Let me know.

Lisa, Mary, Alan, and everyone else,
I used to feel better after reading the posts. Now I feel depressed. Why can't we enjoy being fat? We have nothing left but eating. Maybe we can eat a lot of trans fats and have a heart attack and go fast. Why wait?

Iris L.

Lisa, the medications that keep us at our best are also the things that make us calorie-crazy. Figures! Couldn't just be good, noooo.

Mary, I can't quite imagine how the group exercise could progress. I know that people are far more likely to keep up an exercise plan if they're doing it with one or more friends.

Iris, you know what would make you feel better, when reading posts makes you depressed? Cheesecake . . . ice cream . . . anything chocolate . . .

And Iris, I so get your crack about having a heart attack and going fast! I can see doing that, just to spite our dementia!!

Iris,
the way my luck goes I probably wouldn't die from the heart attack and would end up a tad more surly than I already feel.

quote:

Originally posted by Iris L.:
Lisa, Mary, Alan, and everyone else,
I used to feel better after reading the posts. Now I feel depressed. Why can't we enjoy being fat? We have nothing left but eating. Maybe we can eat a lot of trans fats and have a heart attack and go fast. Why wait?

Iris L.

Hey Cindy, classy way to slip in a first comment! You wrote a kind and humorous remark, just like you've been posting all year.

I love the word "surly." It just sounds so much like what it is.

Anyway, I'm so glad you've stepped into our world. If you would please, would you tell a little about yourself, your relationship to dementia, whatever? Any questions too, of course.

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the welcome.

Surly seems to be my state these days or perhaps prickly would be a better term. My prickliness I think is proportional to the confusion I feel.

What's baffling is I can go into rage in about 3 seconds flat and not even know it's coming or where it came from. Then I forget and that creates it's own set of sub-problems. I swear I sometimes feel like a driverless motorboat on full throttle.

I'm 50 years old, diagnosed with lewy body dementia. Currently taking aricept, namenda, seroquel and some sorta anti-depressant to help control the drooling. None of them seem to help much and if they are helping, well that's a scary thought too.

Stopped working in May of this year. Stopped almost all driving in April or March, had to many problems with judging speed and distance. The clincher for me on the driving though was not knowing how to get the car to turn.

Dementia seems to run in my family. And my educated guess would be that it is of the lewy body variant.

Struggling to create some meaningful structure in my life and find that "zone" where I can do something productive and yet tune out all the extraneous twitching and twittering in my head.

Oh yeah, my sleep is all out whack. Either too much or hardly any.

Cindy

quote:

Originally posted by Advocation/Mary:
1st: Alan you lead. Tell everybody that we are going to start an exercise such as sit ups!

2nd: Alan, you tell the thread the counts (if anybody forgets the sequence, it's perfectly alright, I do it allllll the time! 1-up, 2-down
3-up, etc.!

This has been a couple days since posting. I think this is what I was talking about? Sorry can't really remember......alz moment!

M

whew! I now I'm feelin' better!

Oh Cindy

We can all relate to the sleeping disorders and they will get better (being fasticious)!

I'm still trying to find my "zone". I am currently taking Namenda, Wellbuterin,Cerafolin and Clonazapam. I had several "mini strokes" which showed in the MRI testing. I've thought at times, it would be best to go out with a stroke,but, with my luck, I'd end up bed fast instead of dead!

Driving here in VA, well it's a lot like Los Angeles. And it's been many YEARS since I've been there! It surely is not West Virginia. Where all things are "laid back."

Prickliness? Well, frankly, I get angry and very emotional for no reason. A lot in conversations can leave me extremely emotional and upset....not sure why! But the monster, it is what it is. There's just some days that are easier to deal with it than others. Or at least that's been my case.

I'm 50 diagnosed at 49, 8/08. Quit work due to this "monster" who eats away at us in it's leisure! I'm not a physician and will never claim to be. What is Lewy body?

Mary

I've cured myself of eating low quality fast food. Yesterday I bought a pizza stick (what is this?) and breaded chicken strips. Both were dried out and tasteless and a total waste of money! From now on, only brand named fast food for me! McDonald's, Jack-in-the-Box, all the way!

Alan, I've got some sugar free ice cream in my freezer. I'm eating it, but yeech! Cheesecake, chocolate, I love them. The ironic thing is, I love all food. I love vegetables. I just don't want to cook. I want to eat FAST!

Iris L.

Iris, you bet you've earned the finer side of fast food. I sometimes wonder about that, fast food, in terms of my life expectancy. Sometimes I think, why not go on the McDonald's burgers and New York cheesecake diet? When my mom was widowed in her 50s, she quit eating things that took more than a microwave blast.

Alas, I have some arthritis, and extra weight hurts. I'm back to losing a little fat again, I see my PCP in a few weeks, want to show improvement.

Mary, Lewy body dementia is I think related to Parkinson's. The doctor who discovered the strange little things in the neurons of the folks was Dr. Lewy. Come to think of it, you'd better run a Google search on it.

Dear Cindy,

Hello and Welcome. I'm glad you've found us!

Prickliness is a nice way to say "agitated, angry and sometimes rageful." I know them all very well.
Seroquel has become my best friend.

Are you married? Have children? Any support system in place?

Thanks for sharing. Please, come back and tell us more.

Hi to All,

Just an update. I'm still fat and angry!

How are y'all doing?

Dear Lisa,
If you will eat the things that are brought to us in the season and still eat meat. I truely believe in this.
But in just 3 ear's of corn fill's you up that is a good thing!
Marcia

Lisa,

But are you sassy? If you are then all is right in the world.

Cindy

Dear Marcia and Cindy,

Marcia,
Corn, huh? isn't that how they fatten up pigs?? I love corn! lol Thanks.

Cindy,
Yes, Fat AND Sassy!! Well, maybe not Sassy. How about Fat and Rageful??