HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Steroid danger that no one tells you about. Please read!

Support Forums
>
Ulcerative Colitis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 8/5/2008 5:10 PM (GMT 0)
If any of you have been reading some of my posts you will by kind of aware that my husband has been in and out of the hospital and dealing with a mess for the last 2 months trying to figure why he keeps getting so sick. I have been originally posting as concerned wife WA

So here's what happened. They have had him on 40 mg of prednisone for 3 months along with everything else he kept ending up back in the hospital. We finally came to Virginia Mason in Seattle and thank god that we did.

He was presenting with normal colitis symptoms, nausea, upper abdominal pain, gas etc.

Well turns out he has the worst case of crohns any of them had seen in a long time and the surgeon said he does more crohns colitis surgeries than anyone on the west coast. And, turns out he had the biggest mess internally of anyone conscious.


His bowel was so inflamed it attached itself to the gallbladder and actually bore a hole through the gallbladder and was dumping some stool into the gallbladder. The gallbladder got infected and blew up basically. The one dr said it looked like a grenade went off in his abdomen. The colon also attached itself to the pancreas, duodenum and they had to scrape it off the other organs. There was stool all through the whole area.

He should have been in full septic shock and peritonitis and pain that you couldn't even touch his abdomen but he wasn't,


The dr's told us the steroids can mask other symptoms until it is too late. SO PLEASE GO TO THE HOSPITAL IF YOU ARE AT ALL FEELING DIFFERENT OR SICK AND NOT SURE if you are on steroids.

He came very close to not making it and it was really scary. Now he is still in critical care and will be for a while.

Can't write anymore now need to get some rest.

Cassy
Posted 8/5/2008 5:19 PM (GMT 0)
My gosh- sorry to hear about your poor husband! Although now he's in good hands, & since they have a clear picture of what's going on, he should be better soon. They do publish that info on steroids masking other issues in the drug information, & in all the literature on steroids. It happened to me, & I wound up in ICU for 5 days with strep pneumonia, bacteremia, all sorts of gross infections. They also ask you to be very aware of symptoms when you are on Remicade & steroids, as remicade can make you very, very ill with respiratory things. Keep us posted on your poor husband!

Posted 8/5/2008 5:26 PM (GMT 0)
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
Posted 8/5/2008 5:29 PM (GMT 0)
Glad to hear your husband is in good hands. It's very hard to differentiate Crohn's from UC and fortunately for you the proper diagnosis has been made. I wanted to encourage you to be more agressive with his care but sometimes those messages of persistance don't go over well. I hope he starts to improve immediately once the offending organ is gone.

Sue
Posted 8/5/2008 10:25 PM (GMT 0)
I hope your husband has a good and safe recovery, and can start to return to a normal life. It sounds as if you found a good hospital to cafe for him. Good luck,

----------------------------------------

yuckygut

diagnosed 1998

now off prednisone and colazal

drink 1 Haldi daily
Posted 8/5/2008 11:58 PM (GMT 0)
Oh my, Cassy that is terrible! I can't imagine how worried and emotionally/physically exhausted you both must be. I'm glad they were able to catch this "in time" but it's terrible that it came so close and with all the hospital visits he's had already they didn't notice anything. At least now you really know what's going on and can start the recovery process. They remove the entire bowel and give him a permanent/temporary ileostomy?

Good luck and sending healing vibes your way
Posted 8/6/2008 1:15 PM (GMT 0)
Cassy - I said a prayer for your hubby and you. Keep us posted and we hope every day brings him closer and closer to recovery and getting back to life.
Posted 8/6/2008 3:13 PM (GMT 0)
Oh my goodness! I'm glad it was caught in time. I hope your husband has a speedy recovery and can be back on the road to living normally.
Posted 8/6/2008 3:13 PM (GMT 0)
Hey Cassy!

Glad to see more education is being poored into your husbands problems. Sorry to hear about the turn out, but very happy it was caught. To bad you had to completly go to another hospital.

I to am praying for your husband and most importantly....you! I can only guess what you have been going through or what has been through your mind. Now that I have a name to say I feel like the prayers will be stronger!

Good luck!!!
Posted 8/6/2008 4:25 PM (GMT 0)
Wow, your poor husband and everything he has gone thru.....oh my goodness! And you too! My mother, who had Crohns, went undiagnosed for a very long time. And unfortunately, she developed an ulcer so deep in her intestines that it ruptured sending her into septic shock which in turn caused her heart to stop and she passed away. I know how serious these things can get so yes, he is very lucky to have had that caught in time. Please give him our well wishes and remember to take time for yourself too.
Posted 8/7/2008 8:20 AM (GMT 0)
OH I"m so sorry  for what your  husband has been goingthrough.  Thank goodness they caught it.  That could of very easily been a different outcome.     Prednisone can mask alot of symptoms.   It will make a blood count seem lower than it is.  will mask a fever. so basically,  you could have a RAGING infection , but the tests doctors depend on will not show it.  plz inquire this of doctors if you are sick, remind them that you are on prednisone, and ask if they think it can mask certain symptons.   They may play it off as no big deal to you,  but you better believe they are re-thinking there medical decison making,  and most likely will be doing different tests.  I think they may forget about prednisone effects at times. 
Posted 8/8/2008 6:19 AM (GMT 0)
I have read this at least 20 times. Still can't beleve it. But as a close friend of mine has said. Hope. Hope is something that you give him. Keep strong for him.

~giving ya hope so you can give him hope. =)
Posted 8/8/2008 4:04 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you to all for your well wishes. I'm sorry so long answering back. Laptop was dead. Things are progressing. He got up this morning with massive amounts of drugs. They have him on an epidural and max dose of narcotics. Lots of pain has struggled with that. HERE's another little FYI, hydromorphone and morphine cause severe gas pain if you are having gas. It doesn't relieve it, makes it excruciating. If you start feeling a pain from the narcotics it is not your imagination and it gets worse. But all in all it is the road back I hope. Thanks again for all your support.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply