Blurry vision and light headedness

[donna martinez]

blurry vision and light headedness

I currently tapering off 60mg of prednisone. Right now i'm at 40mg, going down 5mg per week. Ever since i've been taking it ive been getting blurred vision and light headedness. Is this a side effect that will go away after i taper off the prednisone or could it be a vitamin deficiency.

 

[Astra]

Hiya Donna

Pred is a scary med, it's fab tho!
In my personal opinion, you're tapering too fast, it took me 4 months to taper from 40mg, and this is how I did it -
40mg for one month then 30mg for one month, then 20mg for a month, then tapered by 5mg per week til zero, and I was fine.
having said that, I'm on Entocort now, started on 9mg for a month, then 6mg for a month, now on 3mg for a month, and I've posted a thread on how I feel.
I feel foggy, spaced out, dizzy, groggy and can't concentrate.
I don't know what the answer is Donna, but speak to your doc if things don't improve. I'm determined to come off these steroids, they're screwing my psyche up!
I think I'd rather have pain and D than a feeling of zombieness!
stay well
xxx

 

[Sophia]

Oh, I feel your frustration of being on cortisone, girls... *hugs*

Donna: I'm not sure if it could be a side effect, I don't remember having a blurry vision whilst on it, but there were tons of really strange side effects, so this could definitely be one of them. You should ask your doctor if he's heard of it before.

Good luck!

 

[Silvermoon]

Blurry vision is a side effect of Prednisone...one of the ones I had (along with about 09287359872350982390874 others...LOL)... in fact, there are a few optomitrists I have seen while on prednisone that will do an eye exam, but will not recommend any changes in perscrition until you have been off the prednisone for a few months....as your eyes may revert back to "normal"....

However, when in doubt with any of these things, be sure to ask your specialist about them.

 

[Crohns08]

It could also be a vitamin deficiency. You can be light headed when you have low iron. I know when my iron was really low I could hardly walk around my school campus without getting light headed.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

I get light-headed all the time now and it seems to be due to low sodium levels. I just eat a spoonful or two of soy sauce when I'm feeling light-headed, and that really improves things right away. I had a complete blood count done a week or two ago and I'm not anemic or anything else. So if you get tested and it's not anemia or vitamin deficicency, try eating a little sodium and see if that improves things for you.

 

[Astra]

ooooooooooo great idea Cat! I'm gonna try that!

xxxx

 

[Rebecca85]

Just wanted to say, after cat mentioned salt on the addison's thread, I had a cup of Bovril (a salty chicken stock type stuff) and it's perked me right up! Still tired, but now I'm a normal 'had a hard week' tired, not 'swimming through treacle with moon boots on' tired. So thanks for that, cat!

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

You're welcome! I'm glad it helped! That's the same reaction I get too, I go from feeling like I could curl up and die, to just feeling like I could curl up and take a nap. I still don't feel 100%, but having some sodium does make a noticeable difference.

 

[Astra]

I love Bovril Rebecca, I will buy some tomorrow, then hopefully I can take me NASA boots off!

xxx

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

I'm intrigued by this Bovril, I don't think we have it here in the US but we probably have something similar. Is it like boullion cubes or is it a ready-made stock? Sounds like it'd be good to have for lunch on a cold day.

 

[Jerman]

Hi Donna,

the pred has it positive side but I personally hate how it makes me feel. I get short tempered, foggy headed, and blurred vision. I have noticed that many of the meds for our collective conditions have a side effect of blurred vision. It is so important to question the doc as they give these meds out what the down side is to each particular pill. Please don't mistake my message as being preachy, I do not intent that at all. I have just had some very bad experiences with certain meds. I was taking buspar at one point and had body aches and a pain level so severe that I could not even climb the stairs. Another med gave me a hand tremor so strong that i was dropping things all over the place.

There are times when we are suffering and so very desperate for relief that we can slip into the "doc knows best" mindset. We can be in the midst of a crohn's head fog when seeing the doc and simply forget to ask questions while in the office.

Good luck to you Donna and a belated welcome to the forum.

 

[Rebecca85]

Bovril is a thick gloopy liquid, and you add hot water same as you would a cube. I guess you could try a stock cube instead!

By the way, I have been doing some googling. It turns out salt is absorbed throughout the small intestine provided there is enough of it. Salt is actively absorbed (when there is only a small amount of it) in the ileum. Guess where my inflammation is? Normally I don't add salt to food, I figure there is enough in bread and stuff, but I guess I will have to up my intake at least until I am in remission. I wonder how many others there are with chronic fatigue and no obvious cause who are just sodium deficient?

 

[donna martinez]

Thank you everyone. I am getting blood work done to check my vitamins levels. I will also try the salt thing. I may do saltine crackers, i'm not sure if my stomach could handle soy sauce.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Very interesting about the ileum and salt absorption! I knew the ileum is the part that absorbs other things like vitamin B12, but I didn't know that that's where salt is absorbed. I had read that with Addison's disease, sodium is typically lost through "excessive urination" - I know I have sodium loss, but I don't think my urination is that excessive. So it could be my guts or my urine that's causing me to be low in sodium - since I still don't know what I have, I don't know what to blame on the sodium loss!

 

[Rebecca85]

Well afterfinding that out, I think my symptoms are due to theCrohn's. I follow a fairly low salt diet (I don't add salt to food, and I avoid ready meals). I guess before I was ill this was enough salt to keep me going. Now the imflammation is making salt absorption more difficult and the weather here has been very hot (so I am losing salts through sweating). It also explains why I feel worse in the afternoon - the one salty thing I eat every day is toast for breakfast - white bread has about 1g of salt per two slices. I am going to try having a cup of bovril with my lunch everyday and see what effect it has.

 

[DustyKat]

When the dietician saw Roo after her terminal ileum resection he told her to eat as much fat and salt as she liked because she will have difficulty absorbing both.

Roo's response to that was "I hate fat and I hate salt!" lol.