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Posted 7/26/2009 4:49 AM (GMT 0)
Hi everyone,

I have been off prednisone for 7 weeks after taking it for 3.5 months. While I took it I had a lot of side effects. Some have gone away, but some have not.

I am wondering if the discolouration of my skin will ever go away? What about the hair that grew on my face - will that fall out?

My acne is almost gone, my moods have stabilized, and my sleeping is improved. I look more pregnant now than I did while I was actually taking it - pred belly seemed to come after? (I have never been like this before) My hair is still falling out at an allarming rate but I think that is the mezavant and my joint pain continues but may just be my UC.

Thanks
Posted 7/26/2009 7:25 AM (GMT 0)
prednisone works off the adrenal gland. the drug has terrible side effects and each cycle you take can produce a whole new set of side effects.
for females the facial hair is rare this is caused by increased adrenal androgen production.. acne and weight gain is a side effect of all steroids but the good news is that will go away after you stop taking them.

basically, the higher the dose- say 50 mg or more and the longer you take them like 4 years + the more irreversible the side effects become.
perhaps the most scariest side effect for females is bone thinning because women are already at high risk of osteo
Posted 7/26/2009 6:46 PM (GMT 0)
     I've been on and off prednisone since being diagnosed in 1998.  This is my second flare in less than a year, and needless to say, not happy about being back on the prednisone.

     I have never noticed a discoloration of my skin.  I did get more hair above my lip but removed it with Nair.  I have full blown osteoporosis (bone scan read minus 3.5) but only take calcium with vitamin D as Fosamax and other drugs for osteoporosis can cause ulcerations in the esophagus, which I certainly don't need.  The highest dose the doctor will give me of prednisone is 40 mgm with a weekly taper of 5 mgm.  He originally tries me at 20 but that never does squat.    Total waste at starting me at 20 mgm back in June because it did absolutely nothing.  So three weeks ago he increased it to 40 mgm and increase my 6MP to 100 mgm from 50 mgm.   I am now tapered down to 30 mgm of prednisone.  My bilirubin is up a bit and I have to have an ultrasound done of the liver, pancreas and gall bladder this week.  I also take Colazal, Cort enemas nightly and Canasa suppository in the morning.  Just started seeing a chiropractor last week too.  Trying to alleviate some stress.

Posted 7/27/2009 3:56 PM (GMT 0)
So I have been takning Prednisone for nearly a year - have tried to get off several times but had to go back to square one when I got down to about 5 mg/day.  Now I am on Remicade and have the Pred down to 5 mg every other day.  Feeling pretty good, this Remicade is the answer. 

Now my question is:  When should I expect to see this pregnant belly start to diminish?  If ever.  I can't believe how huge I am. 

 

Posted 7/27/2009 9:27 PM (GMT 0)
I get a fuzzy face, and it takes a month or two to go away but it does eventually.
Maybe try a face scrub to knock the hairs off, or splurge on a microdermabrasion session since it might help the discoloration too.
Posted 7/27/2009 10:47 PM (GMT 0)
I just had surgery 6 days ago. Today I've been unhooked from my IV so now I'm pretty mobile. All I have left is the removal of inflammation tube and pouch which is collected fluid, then I can go home with my colostomy bag tomorrow. I was up and walking around either the next day or the day after the surgery. Pain was never really an issue, just trying to get out of bed the first 3-4 days was a tender situation, walking wasn't bad though. Personally I thought the surgery was a breeze... but I'm still pretty young (24) and was probably not in as bad shape as many who turn to surgery were. One of the worst parts for me was the pee tube catheter and being woken up many times a night for IV change, catheter changes, etc. Other than that I feel great today and actually feel like I could go back to work tomorrow if I wanted to... but I will probably wait at least another 3-4 days if they even let me go back so soon. The bag doesn't even smell like normal stool, doesn't smell great but that's just during the bag change, and I'm not sure many people would even recognize the smell anyways, since it smells different than typical poo, at least for me. Prednisone, Humira, etc. taken in high enough doses are pretty bad. I can't say I've regretted my decision 6 days out so far, and things are only getting better, bag will be removed in ~2 months and I feel fine. For me the surgery seems to have gone 100% as planned though, so I don't know what it's like if things go bad. I had my surgery done at UCSF medical center and can't complain so far. I had UC for 4 years, and was taking weekly Humira but stool frequency increased and I had to resort to prednisone again. I don't think that's really a road people should go down for very long. Even having a permanent bag I could probably deal with (I'm probably more conscious of body image than most males and so far I don't even really care about having the bag much for some reason...), but I'm betting once my J-pouch is connected it should work pretty smooth.
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