I'm getting desperate here. Last night, for the second night in a row, I have experienced the most horrible symptoms. As a 64-year-old man, it is common for me to have to get up to go to the toilet and urinate several times during the night.
Last night and the night before, when I tried to sit up and get out of bed, my body would not work. Even the slightest movement came with extreme difficulty, and equally extreme pain. It is like somebody flicked a switch, and turned me into an 90-year-old arthritic overnight. I had no strength in my muscles, and when I eventually managed to get my feet on the floor, I couldn't stand. Every movement was accompanied by horrible pain. It took 30 min from the time that I woke up to go to the toilet and then to get back into bed. I can only be thankful that it wasn't an urgent call to go to the toilet, because I would not have made it. This happened to me twice last night, and I think three times the night before.
Oh, and both nights after the last episiode I had a drenching night-sweat.
Ok, I am 64 years old, and in the past have had a little muscle soreness and stiffness occasionally. I expect that at my age. But until recently I have been very active, going dancing (ballroom and rock'n'roll), walking every day as well as doing nature walks and similar activities. Apart from having what I thought was irritable bowel syndrome, I was a reasonably fit and active person.
That all changed when I had some night sweats and my doctor decided to send me for a colonoscopy, which eventually led to my diagnosis with Crohn's disease. The diagnosis was a godsend in one way, as I started to look for the first time at my diet and the role that it may be playing in my bowel problems. However it also led to me being prescribed first of all with prednisolone, and then with Imuran.
Can somebody please tell me, is it the Imuran or the prednisolone that could be causing these horrible arthritic-like symptoms? Or both?
I was initially on 12.5 mg of prednisolone per day which then went up to 25 mg. This was for about a month. My GI then introduced Imuran, 25 mg per day, and started to taper off the dose of prednisolone, immediately going down to 12.5mg. However, this caused me some problems with diarrhoea so I'm temporarily back to 25 mg per day, but am going to be tapering it off 5mg each week for the next 5 weeks while I wait for the Imuran to "kick-in".
Please give me your best advice, what can I do? This is not like anything I've ever experienced before, and I hate it. I fear for what might happen if I cant get to the toilet in time one of these nights. I really feel like just stopping all of the meds immediately, but I suspect that to do so would give me even worse symptoms of withdrawal.
Gra
Last night and the night before, when I tried to sit up and get out of bed, my body would not work. Even the slightest movement came with extreme difficulty, and equally extreme pain. It is like somebody flicked a switch, and turned me into an 90-year-old arthritic overnight. I had no strength in my muscles, and when I eventually managed to get my feet on the floor, I couldn't stand. Every movement was accompanied by horrible pain. It took 30 min from the time that I woke up to go to the toilet and then to get back into bed. I can only be thankful that it wasn't an urgent call to go to the toilet, because I would not have made it. This happened to me twice last night, and I think three times the night before.
Oh, and both nights after the last episiode I had a drenching night-sweat.
Ok, I am 64 years old, and in the past have had a little muscle soreness and stiffness occasionally. I expect that at my age. But until recently I have been very active, going dancing (ballroom and rock'n'roll), walking every day as well as doing nature walks and similar activities. Apart from having what I thought was irritable bowel syndrome, I was a reasonably fit and active person.
That all changed when I had some night sweats and my doctor decided to send me for a colonoscopy, which eventually led to my diagnosis with Crohn's disease. The diagnosis was a godsend in one way, as I started to look for the first time at my diet and the role that it may be playing in my bowel problems. However it also led to me being prescribed first of all with prednisolone, and then with Imuran.
Can somebody please tell me, is it the Imuran or the prednisolone that could be causing these horrible arthritic-like symptoms? Or both?
I was initially on 12.5 mg of prednisolone per day which then went up to 25 mg. This was for about a month. My GI then introduced Imuran, 25 mg per day, and started to taper off the dose of prednisolone, immediately going down to 12.5mg. However, this caused me some problems with diarrhoea so I'm temporarily back to 25 mg per day, but am going to be tapering it off 5mg each week for the next 5 weeks while I wait for the Imuran to "kick-in".
Please give me your best advice, what can I do? This is not like anything I've ever experienced before, and I hate it. I fear for what might happen if I cant get to the toilet in time one of these nights. I really feel like just stopping all of the meds immediately, but I suspect that to do so would give me even worse symptoms of withdrawal.
Gra
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