Out of the blue, I was enjoying a rush of mental clarity and creative juices. Reveling with a dear friend—”This feels so good!”—my next comment solved the mystery: “It reminds me of when writing my first book while in chemo…jazzed by high-dose steroids.” LOL. My recent burst of creativity was a side effect of a 7-day course of steroids I was taking for a condition (not cancer, but disablingly painful).
“Side effects” get a bad rap. In fact, side effects are any effect beyond the primary therapeutic intent. People generally assume we’re talking about unpleasant secondary effects of drugs or other treatments. Those are “adverse side effects.” Nausea from chemotherapy. Skin irritation from radiation therapy.
Sometimes, side effects benefit patients. For example, a nighttime medication that causes sleepiness. When you have equally effective treatment options, physicians often choose which one based on its side-effect profile.
As a patient, I learned to notice and enjoy positive side effects. Perceiving them as “gifts” mitigates the helpless feeling of having to endure hardships and losses.
I’m glad the steroids resolved my pain. I’ll be glad to be off them, though, because they are keeping me up at night. But truth be told, I’ll miss this rush of mental clarity and creativity.
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