I considered doing a little ditty on Prednisone awhile ago, but then refrained because it isn’t a fun thing to buy and it doesn’t relay a real message of youth and culture and liveliness and all things right in this world… and also, frankly, because I had to take it, which wasn’t making me happy, and what was even making me less happy was my resulting swollen face and the monstrous personality I had adopted.

 

Prednisone is the drug often described as being worse than the burden. It acts as anti-inflammatory for many, many things (in this case, my inexplicably damaged liver), but results in some pretty horrible side effects: weight gain, mood swings, swollen face, excessive hair growth, reduced libido, etc. It pretty much ran the gamut of all things un-sexy.

 

The day that I heard my self prognosis of these drugs (a cool 6 weeks), would in a best case scenario end up being about a year, I started to cry. I wept for the face I had so valued; the sense of humor that seemed like it was going to be lost in 60 mg./day; the necklace I wanted versus the medical necklace I had just purchased. It didn’t seem fair.

 

That was Thanksgiving. For some reason, by December, while the unpleasant side effects had stayed, the disillusionment with the drug had not. I had unforetold amounts of energy now, a clarity of focus I had never experienced; I ran my fastest mile; I needed limited amounts of sleep….

 

And all of this awakening lead me to believe that this is a pretty damn good tech invention. It’s the one that let me share the holidays with my family and not in the hospital, or worse. And that’s not just for me, the drug has helped untold amounts of people and that is why I am toting it as 2007’s It Invention.