I'm not into sports much, especially not baseball, but this is a situation that really hits close to the bone

Major League Baseball toughened up their penalties for steroid doping, steroids being something I'm very familiar with, especially the rather harsh physical side effects

The steroid that took sight from my left eye for over a year, that cost me my teeth over a long course was Prednisone, it's used to treat various medical conditions I've deal with since birth. In my case, it was administered by a Dr who knew the side effets of long term exposure, but since it was the only thing that effectively treated my medical problems

So instead of staying on 75 milligrams a day for no longer than 6 weeks, I ended up doing it for over three years

And in the end, it boomeranged on me so bad that I had to go into the hospital as the prednisone worsened the problems it helped for over three years

for the last two years of that time, I started losing vision in my left eye-a cataract-caused by heavy prednisone usage-with the cloudiness getting so bad that for almost two year, all I could see from the afflicted eye was light & dark

And then my teeth began to crumble, grain by grain, specks gave way to wear which gave way to cavities, first small, then widening and crumbling the already dying bone into huge cavities that wore at least half of my teethinto various stages of decay, often collapsing even past the gumline and into the lower jaw itself

And the abscesses were brutal, either excruciatingly painful, or tender with a heavy throbbing aspect

When you feel your teeth crumble, grain by grain, and you know it's only going to get worse, it definitely affects a social life & a mentality for the worse over a long period of time

Real dental care wasn't an option yet for lots of reasons, but one of them had nothing to do with cos

A few years before losing the remaining teeth & stubs, I'd been to a dentist to get three teeth removed, and it was an operation done right there in the office-it wouldn't take more than an hour

The problem was that I've built up an enormous tolerance for pain killers & other meds over the years, but it didn't make a bit of difference to this particular Dr Mengele, he insisted that he couldn't give me any more, then proceeded to put me through the absolute most excruciatingly painful experience I've ever been through, I felt every single tug, chisel & tear in exquisite pain, it was all I could do not to scream during the whole time

There's no other way to realistically describe that session as anything other than physical torture

Eventually, the rest came out as well, although I was unconscious for this procedure

But I saved the teeth from that day, they're what I'd show anyone considering using steroids, hell, look what happened to my usage supervised by a very disapprovingDr always trying to take me off the stuff, but unable to offer up any medications anywhere near as effective

The Congressional hearings into MLB's steroid scandal were roundly trounced as a sham, but I think nthey did the right thing, I've seen the problems steroid use has in the most stark terms on my health

The side effects are not worth the misery & anguish they bring