Adrenal Insufficiency from Prednisone

[OutOfAction]

Hi Guys,

I started a course of Prednisone to get my UC under control, back in April. The doctor put me on 40mg tapering down every 5 days by 5mg.

When I got down to 20mg the doctor told me that I could do a faster taper of 5mg every 3days because i was having some pretty severe side effects from the Pred (fatigue, anxiety, depression, dizziness etc).

When I finally got off the prednisone I still felt pretty terrible but eventually the depression and anxiety went away. After 4 weeks though I was still very tired and dizzy.

I went back to the doctor and he said I might have come off the prednisone too quickly, so i am now back on 5mg and tapering 2.5 every 7 days.

I still feel absolutely terrible, constantly tired and a lot more dizzy than when I was off the pred.

Has anybody else had this happen to them? How long does it normally take to feel better after prednisone?

I've been out of action for almost 2 months now thanks to prednisone and I have never felt worse.

 

[nikimazur]

This is quite normal. There is no specified timeline..some people feel relief in a matter of days, others over a year. If you are still having issues, your doctor can administer a blood test to see where your ACTH levels are (Adrenocorticotropic) hormone are at to give a baseline. That would be your best bet to make sure that everything is functioning normally, since steroids could possibly due permanent damage, though it is unlikely.

 

[Fosterfamily2303]

Newly dx and not on meds yet...so not a lot of help from me, however I wanted to say I hope you feel better!