Gut pain / coming off Prednisone

[Gra]

Tapering my Prednisone down toward zero, 4mg/day last week, as of this morning I am down to 3mg/day.

The last couple of days (and esp. today!) I am experiencing increasing mid-gut pain, flatulence (OK, Farting!) and BM's becoming more frequent.

Have others experienced these symptoms when coming off Prednisone? Is this normal? Or could the fact I have have been taking Naturopathic treatments be contributing? (Will list ingredients here later when i have the bottle with me).

 

[ellie]

I' d probably be inclined to check in with your GI doc - depends a bit what's in your "naturopathic" extras, but increasing pain and frequency of BM's could mean that you may need a prednisone "holding pattern" for a few weeks while they adjust your maintenance medication dose..

HD

 

[Rebecca85]

Sometimes symptoms return as you come off prednisone, this is usually a sign that your body is not ready (the inflammation is still there) so it could be worth going back up to the previous level until symptoms lessen again.

However, there could be something in the naturopathic medication that is not agreeing with you and giving you symptoms.

In order to distinguish between the two, perhaps you ought to stop the naturopath and up the pred slightly until you feel better again. Then either keep the pred steady and try the naturopath stuff, or lower the pred but don't try the naturopath stuff. Basically change one thing at a time and then you will know which is the culprit.

 

[Gra]

I'm thinking you are right, this sounds like good advice.

I'm will try going back to 5 mg of prednisolone per day for a week or two, and then stop the naturopathic medicine for a few days to see how I go. If my gut settles down, I can start taking the naturopathic medicine again and see what happens.

I have read of the experience of others who had to come down from the prednisolone very, very slowly, I am probably trying to do it too quickly.