40mg's of Prednisone ever not work for anyone?

[Mike_in_IL]

I know that a handful of you have read (and kindly replied to) a couple of my posts in the past week since I joined, but long story short...I'm a 30 year old male who had been in complete remission over the past 8 1/2 years until this past May...that is when the 175mg's a day of Azathioprine I had been taking during this time started to fail me and now no longer seems to work.

After struggling with the symptoms for a good month, a recent colonoscopy revealed moderate (to somewhat severe) inflammation of my large intestines. I will be starting either Remicade or Humira soon, however, my GI doc first put me on 20mg's of Prednisone to help reduce the inflammation...but after 4 days and no improvement, he upped it to 40mg's, which surprisingly, hasn't improved any of my symptoms either after 3 days.

Anyone else ever fail to get any relief from Pred at 40mg's? I know that someone else replied in another thread that it took them a good 10-14 days before it kicked in...but I'm shocked it hasn't helped any thus far. When I was first diagnosed with Crohn's at age 20, my body INSTANTLY responded to 40mg's of this and I had never felt better. My symptons are the same now as they were then, so what gives???:grumpy:

Thanks everyone!

Mike

 

[Crohn's 35]

Hi Mike in all the years I have had to take Prednisone my worst time was post diagnosis and was 55mg and it was crazy...hyper dude I was lol.

other times 40mg does the trick for me and most others. Keep in mind we are all different with severity and medications. Hopefully you will feel better soon, no talk of antibiotics to help calm it down? Maybe Remicade will be a godsend for you. 40mgs work for me within 24 hours.

Hope you get relief soon..keep us posted .

 

[Rob]

My current flare

I was on 50mg pred a day an nothin was happening
that's when I was admitted an put on iv hydrocortisone 4x100mg a day even that took a week an half to slow things up

I was still on my normal Meds at same time too
1500mg mesalazine 40mg somac an 200mg immuran

the side effects of hydro are pretty much same as pred only there bout 1000 times worse
put on 3-5 kilos a day on the stuff
but it did do it's job
so yea pred doesn't always work straight away or everytime
sometimes u need somethin more

 

[MapleLeafGirl]

40 usually does the trick to me and almost instantly. Maybe because you are going from 20 to 40 it is taking your body longer to adjust than if you had just started at 40. I would give it a few more days.

 

[Nyx]

When my flare was really bad they had to start me off at 60mg..and I was on that for a month before tapering.

 

[Mike_in_IL]

Hi Mike in all the years I have had to take Prednisone my worst time was post diagnosis and was 55mg and it was crazy...hyper dude I was lol.

other times 40mg does the trick for me and most others. Keep in mind we are all different with severity and medications. Hopefully you will feel better soon, no talk of antibiotics to help calm it down? Maybe Remicade will be a godsend for you. 40mgs work for me within 24 hours.

Hope you get relief soon..keep us posted .

Interesting you mention antibiotics because my GI doctor just prescribed Flagyl for me right now. So that would put me on Azathioprine, Prednisone, Lialda, and an antibiotic. That mixture is bound to give me some relief, right?! I truly hope the antibiotic does kick in though. Same with the Lialda, which I just started on yesterday.

Anyway, the next step would be to be admitted for IV steroids like Rob mentioned (which I'm sure would do the trick), but I'm also scheduled for a Remicade infusion during the middle of next week, so I'm just going to try and tough it out until then. Remicade worked wonders for me 9 years ago, so here's to hoping it will do the same again!

Thank you all for your replies and I'll keep everyone updated,

Mike

 

[Silvermoon]

Hi Mike! :bigwave: I do hope things start to improve soon...

Just something to remember, that with the antibiotic, sometimes people can get diarrhea with them (go figure, eh?)... so try not to be too discouraged if that particular symptom stays the same or pops up....

I usually try to take some type of acidophilus when I am on antibiotics... it can help prevent yeast infections (and yes, guys can have this problem too...) and help/prevent the diarrhea.... but it doesn't always work for everyone....and not everyone gets D on antibiotics either...lol

Hope you find some relief soon....

 

[sunflower]

I have been on a short course of 60 and even up to 80 mg of Pred at the beginning of a flare. Then I would go down to 40 and that is where I would be for a while as my flare would slowly get under control. I don't recommend going that high, but they can if they have to.

I was in the hospital and had IV steroids (can't remember what that is called) last year. You can tell by my steroid cheeks and chin in my picture! It helped, but I blew up like a balloon in just a couple of days. YIKES!

 

[Guest555]

It was working for me, but now bleeding and incontinence problems coming back.

 

[fateful_one]

hey everybody 40mg of prednisone usually helps me right away(within a couple of days), but my current flare - which started end of July - has not responded to it yet. (started 40mg 10 days ago)

i had been on entocort since april, but it stopped working. i had a few infusions of remicade too, but became allergic. my last injection was early june. ever since then, i have been on 200mg imuran, but that hasn't kicked in yet either!

this flare is a bit different than my last ones because i have so much pain and tenderness in my lower front rt and back abdomen. i had a ct scan done 2 days ago during a lovely ER visit and they told me i had thickened ileum walls consistant w/ crohn's. um, really...no way!?!? they sent me home w/out IV steriods, just vicodin....

i am so, so, so crabby and agitated from the prednisone too. ahhhhhh!

 

[Entchen]

Hi Mike: Hope that you start seeing some relief soon!

 

[Astra]

Hi Mike

I would have thought 40mg would start working straight away, just give it a few more days
hope you feel better soon
xxxx

 

[afman]

during the flare i am in now 40 mg of predisone is not working for me. i had a round of iv steriods in the er with morphine and pheneurgn (SP) and starting cipro and flagl today also since my white cell count keeps climbing even sincce monday

 

[Mike_in_IL]

Ha, I didn't know people were still responding to this thread until I got an e-mail notification...as it turned out, the 40mg's of Pred never did help out at all, but I got a Remicade infusion about a week and a half ago (late July) and that has literally made me feel 100% again. I go for my 2nd one next week, so I hope it keeps working...

Kind of sucks that I'm on the Pred even though it didn't help out, however, I've been weaning off it and will be down to 25mg's in a few days and should be off it entirely by mid-September.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Mike