How long can you stay on predisone?

My cousin was diagnosed in Jan with CD after having massive pain and inflammation in the ilium, but no D.  She was in the hospital for three days on IV steriods.  She has been very slowly tapering down the steriods since Jan and is now at 7.5 mg daily and since she went to 7.5mg, the pain is starting to return.  She is also taking 1000mg pentassa 3xday and following the SCD diet 100% since Jan., but the diet seems to be doing nothing to help since she still has pain.

I know when she calls the GI today she will be told to up the predisone.  My question is, how long can you stay on predisone before you start to see bad side effects from the drug? So far, the only side effects my cousin has seen is some facial hair growth and a slight moon face, but nothing else. 

 How long does it normally take to reduce inflammation with steriods to the point where the pain is gone when you are not taking steriods? How long have some of you been on steriods?

We know the inflammation is getting some what better because she has had 3 CT scans and each one showed the inflammation less then the previous.  The first done in Jan showed a mass of inflammation in the ilium of 6.9cm, the next in Feb showed 5.1cm and the last in March showed 3.9cm. 

Does entincort have the same side effects as predisone and can you stay on it longer then predisone?

 

Post Edited (NY-Sooner) : 5/14/2012 6:53:47 AM (GMT-6)

I was on Pred for 10 months. Diagnosed in June, finally successfully tapered in April. I stated at 40, and tapered from there. I was started on Imuran in August as I got lower but suffered a severe reaction to it and had to drop it, so the Pred went back up to around 30 and slowly tapered back down. In November I started Remicade and hovered around 20mg for awhile, went down to 5 in February or so, got some increase in symptoms and went back up to 15, then finally made it off.

Everyone's side effects are different, mine were increased appetite, upper level chest pain, weight gain (I was already obese), and terrible increase in anxiety. I'm pretty sure I can count muscle loss in there, and probably some bone loss but I'm only 33, so I haven't really been checked for osteoperosis, though it is definetly a long term side effect.

It's a great and terrible drug all at once. But the less time you're on it the better. As Kazbern said, she may need a higher dose of Pentasa, or move to a stronger drug.

In response to your edit.

Entocort (Budesonide) works locally rather than systemically, therefore it typically has far fewer side effects. Unlike Pred however, Entocort has little influence on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which also limits the need of tapering before discontinuation. Nevertheless it is still a steroid and eventually must be replaced with a typical maintenance medicine.

That's really all I know about it, I've never been on it myself so I can't speak firsthand.