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Prednisone is Evil

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manatee

Guest
Well, I went to the gastro doc the other day and when talking about Prednisone he said "Prednisone is Evil"

lol... evil indeed. Stuff makes me feel like I'm going CRAZY at times!

Unfortunately i've been on it for almost a year... at around 10 mg a day. Hope
I haven't destroyed my body too much. :eek2:
 
10mg is a pretty low dose. You shouldn't really have too many problems at that level.

Pred is a love/hate drug for me. It works very well and very quickly, but the side-effects are awful.
 
Medication has it's own theory of relativity. For every intended effect there is an equally strong side-effect. Prednisone is a great example of this.

10mg shouldn't really do anything great one way or the other. It's a really low dose. Pretty much the minimum that will still have an effect.
 
i hate the preds! ive got all the "classic" side effects of acne, insomnia and chubby cheeks, am so happy ive been given the all clear to start tapering. if you don't mind me asking manatee why have you been on it for so long? ive always thought the preds were used at a high dose for a short amount of time to sort of kick start you back into remission.
 
I've been on Pred since May - started on 30mg then kept tapering to 25 then 20 then major flare so back up to 30.

Repeat the above and you are where we are now !

Happily down to 10mg but cannot get lower.

When on 30mg i am happy, energetic and bouncy.

Down to 10mg and i am irritable, depresed and shattered.

It is evil but it's the only thing that gets me through a flare up.
 
L

ls1krab

Guest
30mg and that gets you feeling better? Hell, it takes me 60mg doses to get me started in "remission" which I have never really fully gotten into... I detest this disease...
 
Pred is evil! I am on 5 alternating 2.5 and still miserable with the side effects (fatigue, moon face, acne). Just drop slowly but get off as fast as your body can handle. This drug is bad news.
 
Prednisone is very evil. I've never had it, but we had to put my dog on it when he was a puppy because he had an immune disorder. Poor thing, he felt so awful!
 

My Butt Hurts

Squeals-a-lot!
Yay! I've been on it about 3 weeks and my favorite part of pred just kicked in yesterday! The acne! It's not too bad on my face, but it's on my chest and back a bit. It's really small. My favorite part is picking at it in my scalp. (I'm not kidding either.)
My cheeks just started to get a tiny bit chubby, but I've never gotten the full blown moonface before. I hope I don't. It looks puffy in the morning, but mostly goes away throughout the day. I've never started on more than 40 mg though.
 
I just noticed this morning that my body acne is going away. Looking at my hands though my body hair did encroach all the way to my right pinky knuckle. Unfortunately that doesn't just go away on its own. I guess I could wax though.

On the crohn's side I woke up this morning in pain. 5/10. It feels like it's getting worse though. We'll see.
 
I've been on pred most of my life (I was put on it for asthma before I was diagnosed with crohns) except for about 6 years uptill last february.

I seem to be in the lucky minority, I haven't really had any sideffects apart from Moonface.

I have friends that were put on it, and they have had all the sideffects.

Guess I'm a lucky sod....
 
L

ls1krab

Guest
What serious side effects are you guys referring to? I can deal with the moonface and acne, but what else can be expected?
 
Prednisone does have some mental effects but I don't think hallucinations is a recognized side-effect. I could maybe see in rare cases a very severe prednisone-induced mania resulting in hallucinations though. Do remember that people can have atypical adverse reactions to any medication though.

When I was getting my CMA my teacher explained that her husband has an atypical reaction to Robitussin for example. His reaction was severe hallucinations. He basically had an acid trip on an over the counter cough suppressant.

My wife has an adverse reaction to benadryl where it causes her to have an anxiety attack without fail every time.

These are not side-effects in the normal sense or allergic reactions as they are not an immune reaction. It's simply due to tiny genetic variations. One gene in the wrong place can mean that a certain chemical is dealt with by your body in a completely different way than everyone else.


Now to answer Is1krab's question.. diabetes, severe weight gain, swelling (sometimes to dangerous levels), psychological issues of many kinds, unusual fatigue and muscle weakness (when I was on 40mg I couldn't get out of a chair without using my arms), infections that can at times become very severe (a simple flu earned me both bronchitis and a sinus infection that I'm just now getting over), osteoporosis (start worrying about breaking your hip 20 or 30 years early), and cataracts just to name a few.
 
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Colt said:
Prednisone does have some mental effects but I don't think hallucinations is a recognized side-effect. I could maybe see in rare cases a very severe prednisone-induced mania resulting in hallucinations though. Do remember that people can have atypical adverse reactions to any medication though.

When I was getting my CMA my teacher explained that her husband has an atypical reaction to Robitussin for example. His reaction was severe hallucinations. He basically had an acid trip on an over the counter cough suppressant.

My wife has an adverse reaction to benadryl where it causes her to have an anxiety attack without fail every time.

These are not side-effects in the normal sense or allergic reactions as they are not an immune reaction. It's simply due to tiny genetic variations. One gene in the wrong place can mean that a certain chemical is dealt with by your body in a completely different way than everyone else.


Now to answer Is1krab's question.. diabetes, severe weight gain, swelling (sometimes to dangerous levels), psychological issues of many kinds, unusual fatigue and muscle weakness (when I was on 40mg I couldn't get out of a chair without using my arms), infections that can at times become very severe (a simple flu earned me both bronchitis and a sinus infection that I'm just now getting over), osteoporosis (start worrying about breaking your hip 20 or 30 years early), and cataracts just to name a few.

Is this the fine print they read on the TV ads.....lol
 
Pretty much. Prednisone has a LOT of very serious side-effects. That's why a lot of doctors consider it only usable for short periods to get you through the worst of it. Personally it's worth it to me. I'll never be rich enough to afford remicade, humira, or probably even pentasa. Prednisone is pretty much my only viable option to keep my crohn's disease under control and it really needs to be. My recent use of it really opened my eyes to how much it effects my ability to work and care for my family. I'm like a completely different person when the prednisone has taken away my crohn's disease.
 
M

manatee

Guest
amor151 said:
i hate the preds! ive got all the "classic" side effects of acne, insomnia and chubby cheeks, am so happy ive been given the all clear to start tapering. if you don't mind me asking manatee why have you been on it for so long? ive always thought the preds were used at a high dose for a short amount of time to sort of kick start you back into remission.
The main reason is lack of insurance... but luckily I have insurance now and just started Humira... but, have to taper off of prednisone....
 
M

manatee

Guest
ls1krab said:
What serious side effects are you guys referring to? I can deal with the moonface and acne, but what else can be expected?
For me, mood swings, bad temper, occasional acne and once or twice weird heart palpitation feelings... I think it's ok to take for short term, but not long term
 
Bone thinning is a major side effect, so try to take Calcium Citrate supplements; a multivit is also a good idea. Also eat a high protein, high calcium, low salt, low sugar diet. And try to do some excercise because pred causes muscle weakness and loss....
 
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ls1krab

Guest
Damn, well it has been confirmed I have some mild osteoporosis now, but have been told it is completely reversible with Boniva which I'm taking. The diabetes part is pretty scary though.

One more question for you guys, what exactly does it do fo you guys to let you know it has your IBD under control? I've been on this med for 4 months now at different doses and when I've been on high doses (60-80mg) I actually have solid stools and only go twice a day. Does anyone else experience this?
 
F

frenchfrog

Guest
Anyone else get crazy bad heartburn from Prednisone? I'm also on Remicade, Cipro and Flagyll right now (just found out about Crohn's 2 weeks ago)....Just wondering, because I take at least 2 Pepcid a day, the heartburn just keeps coming...
 
Yeah, my stools are extremely healthy looking on prednisone too. Unfortunately now that I'm tapered down to 1mg and almost off of it I'm back to the nasty stuff. I usually have green, yellow, white, red, and just about every other color besides brown and blue.

Last night I had a red stool which I get every once in a while. It looked like it had rusted. All I'd eaten all day was a small bowl of oatmeal in the evening and for lunch a tuna sandwich with baked chips and rootbeer (I wouldn't have eaten so much but I was passing out and started worrying about a blood sugar drop from not eating) so it certainly wasn't dye or any other non-blood coloring.
 

My Butt Hurts

Squeals-a-lot!
Frik! It's the prednisone!
I've been having BROWN POOPS for a few days now, and I thought that was a good sign. I guess it's just a sign that I'm on pred. Rats.
 
It happened to you too mbh! Wow! Congratulations. It's a sign that the pred is working. Since my pred just went back up to 10mg I'm looking forward to seeing if it happens again.
 

My Butt Hurts

Squeals-a-lot!
Yeah, but I've been on it for 5 weeks so far, and it's taken much longer to kick in than usual. Yeah, I went from 10 poops down to 6 or 7 in about 5 days, but I just started noticing no yellow anything in the poop. I just tapered to 25 mg today. I'll be staying at 20 until I get the big drug resolved, Humira, Cimzia, Remi, whatever.
 
Hopefully I'll get away with the 10mg. I have a feeling the 10mg will be just enough to keep me functioning and then when I taper to 5mg again after 2 weeks I'll have to go back in and ask to go back up to 10mg. Really I'd prefer to have just gotten a steady order for 10mg until I got in with a GI. It shouldn't be very long. A month or less most likely.
 
T

toddadamm

Guest
katiesue1506 said:
60mg gave me hallucinations... not even joking.
dead serious, i had 80mg a day at one point with an abcess im my small intestine. i was a major a-hole. insanity pressure in my head. felt uber tweaky, im down to 10 with another obstruction and my gi is gonna have me start remicade. im pretty sure he wants to butcher my kishkehs. ahhhh avoidance.
got this obstruction from fruit salad. im in the middle of a weird diet involving no processed foods and no wheat/ caffeine, pretty much giving it all up. guess fruit is out of the picture for now.

i did try a proactive ripoff and that helps the acne if u use it. mines gone.

its awesome having a new pc so i can learn how to change my life. ive drastically changed my life trying to get crohns under control.
 
T

toddadamm

Guest
yeah 80 mg. it made me a complete irrational putz with my now ex girlfriend.
i bumped up my 10 mg to 20 today after a delightful night of agony. maybe slept an hour. my dr wont give me pain meds and those help me sleep when im like this. i feel 50 percent today. the blockage passed thru i think, still no #2 yet.
everytime i get down to 5 or 10 mg i flare and get an obstruction. wat luck!!
i definitely think what type of food i put in my body matters as to whether or not i obstruct... its all about elimination.
 
T

toddadamm

Guest
pen, 2 resections u mentioned? how did u realize surgery was your last option, and what bennefits have you gained from it? downsides?

this site makes me cry,
 
M

MGR5951

Guest
I was on prednisone for about a year. I was basically taking 25 mg a day. Like most of you have said, it is very helpful with the Chron's but has some bad side effects. It made me fat and gave me acne. Also, I found that it was very important to keep myself well hydrated or else I would get muscle cramps. I actually remember sneezing one time and getting a cramp in my jaw. Based on my own experience, taking the drug in the short term seems fine. I didn't get acne or those muscle cramps at first and didn't put on weight too fast in the beginning.
 
prednisone evil?????

ohh come on, I only have to take insulin because of the crap...... its not evil, its the freaking devil!

prednisone made me a diabetic.....!!!!
 
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