I hate prednisone!!!!

[im so blessed]

Sorry..i no i need to be thankful for the stupid stuff.Ive been taking 40mg for almost 4 weeks now. I feel so not myself. I cannot handle anything. I have stayed home- a hermit since starting it because i do not trust my behavoir in public. REALLY!!! Im not a child. But i just cant handle it. I ventured out to spend the evening with my 2 best friends lastnite and well....i had nightmares all nite about the way i acted. I feel like such a loser! Please someone tell me i will be normal again someday. And how low do i have to be on it til that happens?? I seriously consider just quickly tapering it so i have a little relief.

[Pete]

I can't give you an answer to your question. For me, pred caused me to lose control of my appetite. I think my temper was a little shorter, but because I'm retired, I didn't get out much... I'd like to think your symptoms will reduce when you get to about 20-25 mg.

Be careful tapering. If you go too fast, you may trigger a flare. Also, your adrenals need time to remember to start making cortisol again.

It's taken me most of 9 months to taper from 60 down to 3 where I've been holding for three months while we see whether or not I can get off mtx.

Weggies prayer: God, give me patience - TODAY!!

[morningsunshine]

Hi there,

I'm so sorry that you're dealing with the awful side effects of prednisone. I was there last summer and I know what you're going through!

To give you some hope: a lot of my symptoms went away at the 20mg mark (the night sweats, the nightmares). At around 10, I started really feeling like myself again (less appetite, less acne, etc.).

I have to say, I'm down to 5mg and most of the side effects have gone away, but I'm still dealing with some moon face and acne. Everything else seems to be back to normal though!

Good luck!! You WILL be normal again someday! Just be patient :-)

[im so blessed]

Thankyou both...yes, a day at a time. I needed that reminder. And patience just for today :)

[Thinker]

Ahhh, prednisone, aka Satan's Tic Tacs. At first you're excited because they make you feel so much better, then you realize it comes at a price. I was at 80 mg for a month when I was first diagnosed, including three days of 1000 mg bursts so I understand your misery and frustration. My face blew up like a pufferfish, I couldn't sleep, and even reading and writing was hard at the really high doses because it made me so jittery. They can definitely cause anxiety and irritability. I always told people, especially my family who had to be around me 24/7, that they can cause these side effects, if I felt like I was being snappy with them. One thing that helped me was to make a tapering calendar so I could look ahead to the dates when I would be at a lower dose and get a psychological boost. I would also google online for prednisone humor, there's some pretty funny stuff out there! I too felt like myself when I got down to 10 mg. Currently at 4 mg and continuing a slow taper down. Just remember to take your calcium supplements. Sounds like you were feeling better by your last post. :thumbup:

[annekat]

I experienced about the same as Pete, more pigging out than snapping at people at first, because I was home alone and there was no one to snap at but my cats (which I probably did a few times). Once I got out in social situations again, I think I was down to around 20-30mg, and it was less of an issue, though I did get a little testy here and there. It would be about things that were worth being annoyed at, but I'd go a little overboard in my reaction. Now I'm at around 13mg and it's a lot better, though I can still be crabby, but maybe I am to begin with, somewhat. It's different for everyone. Hang in there!

[NikkiNicole]

Prednisone is the devil! I was awful on it. Up and down and eating everything I could find because I felt shaky and starving despite what I had eaten. But, you'll get better, I hope. It is supposed to help your disease. I know I saw no improvement but then again, I was also on it for very short periods of time and was only at high dose once. I am hoping for you to have some relief soon!

[mrtmeo]

Prednisone seems to really help most weg's folks, but it never seemed to help my mom at all and she has MPA.
I wish they had a way to inject the prednisone into the organ that has all the inflammation to bring it down quicker.
If they could direct the steroid into the lungs and/or kidneys, maybe it would stop the inflammation faster while we wait for the treatment(s) to put us into remission.
They use a steroid in the bronchial tube when there is heavy inflammation and it works.

[Wegetarian]

Those 1000mg IV's of pred where the bomb. Didn't sleep much those days.

I think that on the first time I was on high pred I had a shorter temper, and also gained a lot more weight than on the second round. The second time I got real talkative and very emotional and not so grumpy. I did feel weird to watch some action movie with tears running on my cheeks as I got so sentimental. I wonder why I felt so different, maybe I had been more accustomed to the drug since I had been on pred for a year. It was also a slightly different form, as the first time I took Prednisolon and the second time Prednison.

Now at only 7,5mg and been feeling normal for quite some time, I think 20mg is kind of where I start to feel myself. I don't think my short term memory is what it was before I got sick, I hope it will return if I get to taper of completely.

[MikeG-2012]

Yes, I was a moody one while on the high doses. I snapped at all my co-workers once when we were cleaning up a common storage area on campus. They wanted to take over and start on my side of the room, and I didn't have time to think about where stuff would go, and just snapped. Had to apologize later for ,y outburst. They all have been really, really great about handling me when on the pred. But, yes, I hate it too. I'm just not ME while on it.

[gilders]

The Drs on the webinar that Wegetarian has recently posted seem to think that beyond the first couple of weeks of treatment for WG, steroids may not be doing much to help our condition and we could possibly be much better off without them.
I think that would be great if research backs this up and we can all be pred-free after a couple of weeks. But on the other hand, having been a WG veteran of 20 years, approximately 15 of those years on prednisolone, I'd be pretty annoyed that I'd been suffering the side effects for no reason.