High Cholesterol from being on Prednisone?

This is a known side effect of prednisone and is supposed to go away when you stop the pred. Regardless of that - the elevated cholesterol levels still have the same bad effects as long as your levels are high.

Glad your doc was watching for it and can counsel you on how to manage that side effect.

You may need to get more Vit. D through your skin since it sounds like your intestines aren't doing a very good job absorbing the D3 you are taking. The easiest way is to spend time in the sun without much clothes. The best time of day is solar noon - your shadow is shorter than you are. Sunlight really is the best source of Vit. D. If you do sunbathe, do not shower or wash with soap immediately afterwards. It actually reduces the amount of Vit. D if you do that.

For those who aren't able to enjoy solar noon without huddling inside a parka, an alternative is the use of sun lamps designed to provide Vit. D supplementation. Tanning booths are another option but you want to only use ones that have low UVA/high UVB light and only use them for short periods of time to the extent necessary.

Are your other vitamin levels OK? If they haven't measured them I would ask for that to be done. That's because you may have fat malabsorption reducing your ability to absorb Vit. D orally. It will also affect your Vit. A and other fat soluble vitamin levels significantly.

If you have fat malabsorption you may also have bacterial overgrowth. It all tends to hang out together. Fat malabsorption and bacterial overgrowth can cause diarrhea, belly pain and malnutrition. These symptoms can be confused with a CD flare or may complicate a flare. So getting them diagnosed and treated (bacterial overgrowth is easy, fat malabsorption is a much harder problem to solve) can make a big difference in your quality of life and health.

The fat soluble vitamins are A, D, E and K.

If you appear to have fat malabsorption then you may not be absorbing adequate amounts of any of these vitamins.

A, D and K are stored in the liver. It's my understanding that by the time you show very deficient you have used your body's stores up and have nothing to fall back on should you have a period of illness that causes diarrhea or inability to eat/absorb nutrition. So replacing them at the maximum safe dose is essential. And it must be done under medical supervision.

Vitamin A is essential to your eyesight. My sister has severe fat malabsorption and was not properly diagnosed with vitamin deficiencies. As a result, she developed severe corneal and retinal damage due to lack of Vitamin A. It has taken almost 2 years of IV vitamin supplementation for her Vit. A level to return to normal levels. We are hoping her eyesight will recover in time.

D is important in many body systems but it's importance in bone health is well known.

K is essential to your body's ability to clot correctly. Too much or too little clotting - either one is bad. So K is perhaps the most acutely critical fat soluble vitamin for this reason. It is also the easiest to detect yourself and most likely to get you to seek help promptly when you notice problems like extensive bruising or bleeding that won't stop.

You are correct. Potassium's symbol is K. Sodium may be shown as Na. These are their symbols on the periodic table of elements.