I am not taking the Prednisone!

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heartofwisdom

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Dec 8, 2008
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I can't take it. They increased me to 20 and I can't sleep. My mind races. I'm gittery, I feel like I'm going insane.

After 3 nights no sleep I took Ambien -- MISTAKE. Ambien put me to slep alright then I had an accident while asleep got up to clean up and stumbled all over the bathroom.

I will not take the Prednisone today so I can sleep tonight.

I would rather have D bleed and get transfusions than go on like this.
 
you need to be careful with prednisone. don't just stop taking it altogether as it can cause some serious problems. talk with your doc about getting you off of it and maybe get a temporary prescription for xanax or valium to calm your head down a bit.
 
Prednisone causes your adrenal gland to shut down if you have taken it for an extended period of time (2 weeks or more). It will not wake up again unless you taper slowly.

If your adrenal gland is not woken up properly you will become very sick, your blood pressure will drop as your heart pumps less and less hard, and eventually your heart will stop and you will die. There are no ifs, ands, or buts. You will die. Understand?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addison's_disease#Addisonian_crisis
 
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Please do not suddenly stop taking Pred.

You must taper. I know its hard, I have not slept the past 2 nights and I feel like I'm a zombie. I'm currently on 35mg.

I get heart palpitations, sweats, night sweats...

You will get through this. Just try to take some deep breaths.

Call your doctor for more help but DO NOT STOP TAKING IT without a taper! Please!
 
yeah i just got a prescription for prednisone and it's only meant to be a 2 week dose, but they have me slowly weening off of it, so after the 2 weeks of 8 tabs a day, each week following, it's one tab less (i.e. week 3 - 7 tabs of pred a day, week 4 - for 6 tabs a day, and so on until i get down to 1 tab, then finish).

please be careful.... don't suddenly stop!
 
I'm finally down to 15mg and tapering 5mg per week. I've yo-yoed all over with my dosage up to 60mg ever since August.
 
Don't abruptly stop!

This med sucks, no doubt. Have been on it since September. Started at 40mg, tapered down to 5mg only to go back up to 20mg last week as diarrhea reared its ugly head.

I hate it too. But, once on you have to taper down.
 
I just tapered down to 30...for the 2nd time lol. Lets see if I can stick with it this week.
 
Hang in there and keep reminding yourself, this crap will go away soon - Prednisone is not forever.
 
I'll put up one better Kittee. I'm now at 10mg. Just 1 pill per day. I'm going to go off of this stuff on schedule no matter what unless it kills me. Then I'll be off of it even faster! Mostly right now I just want off of it so that I can have some honest test results to display that I really am having trouble.
 
Ha! Can go one better Colt as I dropped to 5mg last monday and will stop it next monday.

Cant wait to stop the flipping stuff!

Well done Cassie on starting to drop ((hugs))
 
hey does prednisone cause dry throat and/or an urge to cough? i am now noticing that my neck is looking quite puffy and i have dryness in my throat, sometimes at night i'll have moments where i don't have enough saliva to swallow.

i'm definitely tapering off of this drug as of tomorrow. so glad the first week is up so i can look forward to getting off this ****
 
I can't wait to get off the stuff either, I don't know if I've had any really noticeable side effects. Maybe a little bit moody and bruising very easily but other than that I'm okay. I'm very aware however long term steroid use is not recommended. I guess maybe it's the problems I can't see on the outside I should be most worried about. I'm on calcium d3 chews aswell now though, help my bones out.

I started on 40mg, tapered to 20mg, all symptoms came back. Back up to 40mg, tapered to 25mg. Gastro told me back up to 40mg, haven't started a taper as yet. He's told me go 40mg 7 days, then 30mg 7 days and so on. So in just less than a month hopefully I'll be steroid free and also hopefully feeling a bit better.
 
prednisone

im mike i took prednisone yrs ago and gained 30lbs in 1 mth my ankles swole up and couldnt even tell i had them i got pimples and ate and ate
 
MINI Cooper said:
so what are common side effects of tapering?
besides joint pain- already been thru that :( :ybatty:
Click to expand...

I've been off for about 3 weeks now. I was on Pred since Sept. I still have joint pain,but also my bones ache in between my hip and knees, elbow to hands. You get the idea. This pain is all new to me as I've been on Pred before and the only side effects were joint pain. I'm also very tired all the time. I can't stay up past 8pm.

Just a FYI. The faster you taper the more your joints hurt. At least for me it did.
 
well, i was asking about dry throat/urge to cough being a possible side effect of pred, looks like instead, this thing messing with my immune system was not a good time since my coworker had strep throat and whooping cough... i think i've caught whooping cough.... blah! i've had it before, coughing so hard and not able to catch my breath to the point i was vomiting and vomiting, plus the pressure from coughing/vomiting caused a blood vessel to burst in my eye... so i don't wanna go through that again.

hopefully i can go get an antibiotic tomorrow and get rid of this before it gets to that point. i can't afford to keep missing days from work... i already have to be off this thursday for a CT Scan... argh!

i dunno i'm just venting here... had to wake up early today.


other than this coughing, i'm ok, face still puffy - eating like a damn pig and retaining water (now i'm up 4-6 pounds), but i began tapering the pred for the past 2 days (35 mg this week)... i'm annoyed that i messed up the days cuz i could've actually started tapering a day earlier, but oh well...

cheeky said:
hey does prednisone cause dry throat and/or an urge to cough? i am now noticing that my neck is looking quite puffy and i have dryness in my throat, sometimes at night i'll have moments where i don't have enough saliva to swallow.

i'm definitely tapering off of this drug as of tomorrow. so glad the first week is up so i can look forward to getting off this ****
Click to expand...
 
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im currently on 30 having just lowered from taking 40 for a week, 2 or 3 more weeks before im off i think. the medication has made me feel great tho, i havent felt so well in ages, the only problem like you say is the major lack of sleep, im struggling to get 4-5 hours a nite. Lying in bed desperate to get to sleep with your mind racing and not being able to do anything. its awfull but id much rather just be worrying about a bit less sleep than ending up really ill like i was again.
 
how come some people get to taper off @ 10 mg per week, while others decrease by 5mg? i know i hear you gotta be careful and taper slowly, but i'd love to speed up the tapering in increments of 10 mg instead... i'm tempted to just do it, but know i'm supposed to 'talk to my doctor'
 
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Cheeky you have to taper slowly because the amount of steroids you are on in relation to YOU and the length of time you are on it has an impact on your adrenal glands where cortisol is naturally made by the body.

Your body needs time to tell the adrenal glands to "wake up and work" again. A slow taper is a good thing despite the side effects as a result.

If you dont taper as per agreement with your own doctors who know you best then you are at risk of what is known as Addinsonian Crisis where your adrenal lands havent "woken up" and your body is left with no support from cortisol or the pred and it is life threatening!!!!

So no please, please, please dont be tempted to muck about with the reduction - only ever do it in agreement with medical input and supervision.

I have been on pred via injection every 6wks since August and then orally 60mg daily from October so have had to decrease by 5mg a week and took my last dose this morning. It is best to take it in the morning as that is when your body benefits the most from it. Frustrating? Oh yes! But its a case of sticking with it if you want to get better.
 
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soupdragon69 said:
Cheeky you have to taper slowly because the amount of steroids you are on in relation to YOU and the length of time you are on it has an impact on your adrenal glands where cortisol is naturally made by the body.

Your body needs time to tell the adrenal glands to "wake up and work" again. A slow taper is a good thing despite the side effects as a result.

If you dont taper as per agreement with your own doctors who know you best then you are at risk of what is known as Addinsonian Crisis where your adrenal lands havent "woken up" and your body is left with no support from cortisol or the pred and it is life threatening!!!!

So no please, please, please dont be tempted to muck about with the reduction - only ever do it in agreement with medical input and supervision.

I have been on pred via injection every 6wks since August and then orally 60mg daily from October so have had to decrease by 5mg a week and took my last dose this morning. It is best to take it in the morning as that is when your body benefits the most from it. Frustrating? Oh yes! But its a case of sticking with it if you want to get better.
Click to expand...


ok thanks, i know you're right... lol maybe this drug is giving me another side effect - anxiousness/paranoia...

anyway, glad you made it through and are finally off the pred... hopefully you find a better treatment.

take care
 
Hey guys, a couple weeks ago I posted my taper schedule I had for Pred. Here's the post:

Here's how my pred taper schedule went... and I had no issues:

1 week @ 40
2 weeks @ 60
1 month @ 40
1 month @ 35
1 month @ 30
1 month @ 25
2 weeks @ 20
2 weeks @ 17.5
2 weeks @ 15
2 weeks @ 12.5
2 weeks @ 10
1 week @ 7.5
1 week @ 5
1 week @ 4
1 week @ 3
1 week @ 2.5
1 week @ 2
1 week @ 1
1 week @ .5

took forever, but like I said, I had no probs.
Click to expand...
I'm only posting this because like I've said before, besides the normal side effects of Pred, I didn't have any bad tapering effects. I went verrrry slowly, but it was worth it in the end. I hated every minute of it, and I hated myself and my body, but you just gotta remind yourself that there will be light at the end of the tunnel. Your best bet is to taper slowly and correctly than to risk screwing up your adrenal glands or causing yourself horrible side effects.

I think the best way to think of tapering is in the percentages. Tapering from 40mg to 30mg is only a 25% decrease, however even though tapering from 20mg to 10mg (the same milligram difference) its a 50% decrease for your body which is a lot harder. Its the same at the lower ends... 10mg to 5mg is a 50% decrease, while 5mg to nothing is a 100% decrease. I think the biggest percentage drop on my taper schedule was 33% (except for at the very end because there's no way around it). I would say anything above that is gonna risk you more tapering side effects.

**my statements are only what my personal doctor told me... if yours says something different, it may be best to follow their recommendation or at least consult them before changing your recommended regimen.
 
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Remember having insomnia is better than crohns getting worse. Expecially if you dont have a job to worry about, try and tough it out. You may get health MUCH faster with Pred, and all your problems will go away after that.
 
i'm back, cuz i just need to vent. i had the worst day, i won't get into all of it, but i'm just feeling very down emotionally and i think the prednisone may be the culprit. although i've now tapered down to 20 mg (4 tabs), during the past week, i was PMSing and on my period, and just hungrier beyond belief... now keep in mind, my appetite was already up from the pred, but at the beginning, i gained 6 pounds water weight, and lost it after my first taper and exercise...

i was maintaining my weight with exercise and then suddenly when my hormones kicked in, the combination of hormonal cravings, exercise and pred got me eating A LOT! and i didn't exercise for 3 days... and within 3 or 4 days i'm up 12 POUNDS!!!! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE????

i keep rationalizing telling myself it's water weight cuz even though i ate a lot, it is not possible to gain that much fat in 12 days... maybe a couple pounds but 12??? or is it possible? :( i am really struggling with body image right now... and this med is making me really emotional i think (and the hormones)....

something weird at night that has happened a couple times, is mild anxiety... whenever i have anxiety in the past, i go through this thing where i'll wake up suddenly feeling scared and thinking i forgot something.... while on pred, i'll wake up startled and think that i forgot to take my medication and feel scared... then i gotta remind myself i took it.

anyway, i'm on 20 mg, since friday, and i've decided that after one more day, i'm gonna just cut down to 10 mg instead of 15 mg.... i really can't ******* take this right now.

i also bought some COLYTE, and i'm gonna clear my colon, and then pretty much fast all week and exercise my ass off, to see if this 12 pounds will go away.

i feel so ****** today... what's messed up is i'm binging it's like ridiculous, i'm not even hungry, but keep eating and it's like this ****** up mental thing... and i eat to the point i'm super full and bad thoughts come into my head, i'm tempted to make myself throw up... but i know that would be really risky and just stupid. but the thought creeps into my head everyday, which is really terrible.

may seem vain and silly to you all... but my self esteem is really not in a good place right now.... and i just want to get off this crap. i wish i never went on it.

oh and since feb 1st, one of my symptoms came back. the bloody bowels. but everything else is pretty ok, maybe a lil fatigue is back, but no stomache pain and unfortunately still have the appetite.


end of vent.
 
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oh and how could i forget the other side effect, i ended up getting SUPER sick for 2 weeks, cuz of the weaker immune system... antibiotics didn't seem to help ... i was coughing a lot, had phlegm, runny nose, but then it travelled up more... very sore throat and my ears also became sore and plugged (i've never been one to be prone to ear infections)... i felt terrible. i was warned that if i wasn't careful, it could've turned into pneumonia.

then after the antibiotic for my ears and throat, i started taking buckley's and that seemed to help get me better... anyone else end up getting very sick cuz of the immune system being weaker?
 
Prednisone doesn't just make you more hungry, it lowers your metabolism. You'll gain weight even if your caloric intake remains the same. You need to find ways of raising your metabolism. Exercise of course is a good one and stopping the exercise may have done more damage than the increased eating, though of course the weight gain wouldn't be as bad had you only had one of those things influencing you.

Depression is a symptom of tapering prednisone as your adrenal levels drop. Going up on and taking high doses of prednisone will likely give you mania, which is the opposite of depression.
 
well now i weighed 16 pounds more this morning (i was 128 pounds just 4 days ago, now i'm 144)... i am crying right now, i really hate this. what i don't understand is, even if i pee a lot, the scale isn't budging, which is unusual. i don't get how this is physically possible!

i was actually exercising excessively for a couple weeks until my period arrived (stupid me thinking i could take a little break), i would work out for 1-2 hours a day and that was maintaining my weight (the amount of exercise i was doing i should've LOST weight)... it's sad that i had to work out that often in order to just MAINTAIN. and i wasn't eating as much as i have been recently.... also, i think it has to do with my hormones cuz of my period... but now my period is over... and the weight keeps climbing, i can't handle this. i have serious issues with my body image and eating disorder tendencies and this ******* prednisone is messing with my head and making me want to do crazy things.

wow, it ***** up metabolism too? ARGH! i HATE this!

i want to just stop these pills, i so desperately do. i want to taper in less than 7 days. i think i might be ok because i haven't been on prednisone long and i see other people who are on it for short periods.

i'd rather be in pain and lose my appetite than to feel the way i've been feeling recently. i'd rather starve. **** this prednisone.
 
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I don't suppose it will accomplish much for me to try to assure you that the extra weight isn't that big of a deal so we'll look at it this way: It's temporary. It's like being pregnant. Sure you gain a bunch of weight but as long as you still eat reasonably healthy things and keep in shape the weight will come right off when it's over with. A good portion of it is water weight too. But, you're not just going to pee it out now. The prednisone is going to fight you and tell your body to hold on to that water and prednisone gets what it wants.

How long have you been on the prednisone and at what doses?
 
hi colt, thanks for replying to my stupid rants... i've calmed down quite a bit now... actually, i weighed again and i'm at 140. and i just started taking my COLYTE to clean out my colon, and i plan to just stick to a liquid/fruit/veggie diet this week if anything and exercise a lot.

all of the weight is definitely more isolated in the stomach area, my waist is up about 2.5 inches but my hips/legs up about half an inch too. my face looks puffy as well, definitely my eyes but hey that's probably from crying lol

as of today, i've been on pred for exactly a month... i started at 40 mg, and was recommended to be on it for 2 weeks at that dose before tapering, but decided to begin tapering after i was on it for 8 days...

i'm presently at 20 mg (which began friday). and as much as i'm tempted to cut the dose sooner while i'm feeling like a psycho mess, my right mind tells me not to risk it and i will continue to taper on the 7 day schedule.

so i'll be off this stuff for just under 4 more weeks. so beginning of march i'll be free. i think once i'm on 10 mg, i'll feel relieved because i've heard the side effects don't tend to occur on that low a dose.

i know i'm being a complainy/shallow idiot these last couple days, i know it could be worse and i should be thankful because i haven't had many other side effects and you're right it's temporary... and when my crohn's is active, i keep remembering how lucky i am that it doesn't have me running to the washroom like most of you have mentioned.

i'll just try to get through this, but i have my really low moments with the crying and just feeling unhappy.

thanks again for your help, you're very knowledgeable... i just really needed to vent.
 
katiesue1506 said:
Also, being a woman, our weight can fluctuate 5 lbs daily. You also weigh more during your period.
Click to expand...

ya, i've calmed down a lot now lol... i was very emotional over the weekend... usually when i'm not on pred, i know when my period is coming i can retain up to 8 pounds in water... so i guess the combination of pred and my hormones and the overeating just caused my water weight to double.

fortunately this morning, i was down to 133, so another 5 or 6 pounds and i'll be back to myself... i just reduced my sodium, increased my potassium, and i've been exercising... and lots of water.

so i'm sure the rest will come off... though i did kind of over eat today. oh well.
 
sorry to hear that everythings being so rough cheeky.
the prednisone definitly will make you psychotic. last time for me i kicked a hole in my bathroom door....whatt? i would never do that as my normal self. so try to to let your crazy feelings scare you too much ok?
decreasing your sodium is a good idea. i did that when i was on it for a very long time and i could actually tell a slight difference in the puffiness of my face, so it seems like it helps.
 
haha thanks kello82, yeah definitely was having a psycho episode over the weekend... fortunately i haven't reached the point of violence yet, but i have been very short tempered with strangers i will say... lol! yet for the past 2 days, i've been super happy and in an upbeat mood... holy moodswings...
 

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