How do you feel on prednisone?

[scottgirl21]

I just recently was given 20 mg pred and taper down 5 mg for 4 weeks. How are you supposed to feel on it? I've been on it for 7 days and my chest feels congested my throat is so dry and my voice is really hoarse. I don't feel any relief when it comes to breathing through my nose. In fact I feel like my whole chest is congested and I can't breathe at all. Please help!

[im so blessed]

Did they diagnos you with wegeners now? 20 mg of prednisone is a fairly low dose. Do you have a rheumatolagist familiar with this disease? Im not sure what exactly they prescribed the prednisone to treat.

[Pete]

I just recently was given 20 mg pred and taper down 5 mg for 4 weeks. How are you supposed to feel on it? I've been on it for 7 days and my chest feels congested my throat is so dry and my voice is really hoarse. I don't feel any relief when it comes to breathing through my nose. In fact I feel like my whole chest is congested and I can't breathe at all. Please help!

Perhaps you may have a cold?

20 mg seems like a relatively small dose to me.

When I was on really high dose (between 40 and 60 mg/day), I mostly felt hungry. Guess that's why I quickly regained the 25 I lost at disease onset and then packed on 20 lbs more. It's taken me most of three years to get back down to my original 170.

[annekat]

According to the info sheet that comes with pred, it can cause some respiratory issues in some people. I don't know if it's an allergy, or what, but you might check that sheet and talk to your doc. When I first had pred for sinus infections, before WG dx, I'd have 10-14 day tapers starting at 50mg and tapering down. It always made me feel better, cleared up my voice and other symptoms, and didn't create breathing problems, but at the highest doses, I'd get a pretty severe, non-productive coughing attack about 5-6 hours after taking it, which would subside after 10 min. or so. Only one doc, and not my regular one, acted like pred could cause that. I eventually got over this tendency for the most part. In any case, 20mg. does sound like a low dose, and one which would be less likely to cause these issues. I, too, wonder where you are being treated and what stage of treatment you are at, and also whether you have in fact been dx'ed with WG and what parts of your system are involved.

As for how people usually feel on pred, besides the hunger that Pete mentioned, it may range from not much different, to having noticebly more energy, to being unpleasantly nervous and irritable, having trouble sleeping, and in extreme cases, even having psychotic episodes. That is, from reading of people's experiences on here. For me, its just been more energy, relief of symptoms, occasional irritability (crabbiness), and being ravenous at the higher doses.

[kgnboy]

I was on 60 mg and have have been tapered down to 30 mg with no respiratory issues. You should probably discuss with your doctor quickly, hunger and the normal swelling from steroids is what I've experienced.

[Jaypfei]

I agree with your dosage being kind of low. My largest dose was 70mgs when I was in the hospital . By the time I left I was on 60mgs. I can tell you that I was so wound up that I would go two days awake before I finally would crash. The higher doses also caused flushing, sweating, and rapid heart rate. Not so good when I was already taking Meds for tachycardia.
The only up side was that I got a lot of hobby work done.
If you feel that the 20mg dose isn't helping or that you are getting worse then definitely call your Dr.