Prednisone - When should I feel the effects?

with my past experience, it's always worked withing 1 -2 days. I just received an injection in my IV last night at the hospital of prednisone and it took effect within 2 hours...granted that's much more effective than taking it orally but all in all it should work fairly quickly. I was given 40mg

Sometimes 30 was not enough for me (even though I would try). I needed at least a little time with 40. I would notice a different within a day or two.

Regarding a taper, do it according to how you feel, not according to a set schedule, is my advice.
Don't start tapering if you haven't yet seen improvement and are still flaring badly.

I never used 30 mg as a starting dose, I always started with 40 mg. Bear in mind that I've always weighed around 200 pounds. I have had very mixed results with prednisone. I have had INSTANT relief, where I began to notice improvement within hours of the first dose, to episodes where 40 mg of prednisone in conjunction with solumedrol did virtually nothing for me for WEEKS (and I was hospitalized during these times). It can vary quite a bit, and tolerances can be developed to this drug, which can eventually wear off. The one thing I could always count on with prednisone, however, were the unfortunate side-effects such as hunger, thirst, unpleasant weight-gain, moon-face, hot flashes, and insomnia. I am sorry I cannot give you a clearer answer because my experiences with prednisone have varied greatly - I'm a prednisone-veteran (as I'm sure many in here are).

Perhaps you should speak with your doctor and ask about using a higher dose. Perhaps he or she will feel it is safe enough and worth the risk in the short-term.

Ugh Just Ugh said...
I think it depends on how bad your flare is. When I started Pred, last year I was extremely ill and started at 60mg. While I saw some improvement almost immediately, it took about 4 weeks to have solid BMs.

I absolutely agree, and there is evidence that suggests this to be true. The longer one waits to initiate a prednisone cycle to interfere with a flare, the more likely it is that he or she will have to wait longer to experience relief. The moral of the story is: get in there FAST if you are beginning to spiral into a flare. Don't wait for more and more inflammation to cause more and more damage to your colon!

Last time I went to 100mg and it did nothing. Previously it worked with 24-48 hours.

30 mg did nothing for me. 40 mg worked.