Feeling the Prednisone Taper Anxiety

Hi all,

Well I just started tapering on my prednisone from 40 to 30 mg daily.   I, for one, love prednisone.  No colitis symptoms whatsoever... I eat like there is no tomorrow and thoroughly enjoy it, get this happy- euforia feeling, my skin feels amazing and in general I have feeling of well being.  The only downside is the lack of sleep.  

Anyways... I am tapering and beginning to feel anxious of when my symptoms will return.. Everytime I pass gas or feel movement in my stomach I am getting worried.  :(   

Too bad they can't come up with a drug you can stay on that makes you feel "normal"

Just venting.  :)

Belley

He Belley, I totally understand how you feel. When I first started prednisone, I felt great. My UC symptoms went from severe to none practically overnight. It wasn't until I got pudgy that I would do anything to get off the stuff. I ate & ate. I had a very difficult time tapering off and I felt the samew ay you do, every feeling in my gut, I worried what would come of it, would there be blood, D? It was very stressful. I finalyl saw a psychiatrist who gave me klonopin and I was using that to ease stress and sleep. I think it helped. I recently started Pristiq for migraine headaches but I notice that my stress level has decreased a lot since starting it and my UC symptoms seem to have improved. I am not sure if it is from the medication but I feel better, my UC hasn't behaved this well since I was on a high dose of prednisone. I now believe, if stress and worry are big problems for you, go see someone and treat the anxiety.

I've been tapering off Pred since 7/9 at 5mg/week and had no side effects....so far. I'm currently down to 10mg. I also added Entocort EC at 6mg daily. This really helped improve my lingering symptoms. I do have occasional gas but I seem to be ok with that.

The scary thing was I was tapering without being in remission due to a set back from a car accident and being on the Pred at 40 mg for 5 weeks was too long. Wish the docs would have given me Entocort to begin with as I had positive results with the Budesonide suppositories (same active ingredient tin Entocort). You'll think they would wan to use something that works, not something new! Unfortunately these doc have their own protocol and sometime sit's not in our best interest!

BelleyAche,

So your taper off Pred with no maintenance plan? That's like waking a tip-rope without a net! The docs wanted to put me on Imuran or 6mp while on pred but I' so sensitive to the Mesalamine it doesn't make sense to put me on something with worst side effects! My local GI wanted me to just say on Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) since it was helping...but this was before the accident. After the accident she changed her mind and put me back on Apriso and added Budesonide enemas. The enemas work fine but the Apriso was not working well in the upper part of mt coon as I have pancolitis. She wouldn't listen either..just figured the blood was from hemmroids! But it wasn't as my BM were mushy toward the end indicating the mushy stools were from higher up in the colon...plus Apriso is labeled as a maintenance drug not one to kick you into remission! Also Mayo Clinic noted that Apriso was not working for me and told me to discontinue use. Maybe good once in remission but I wouldn't trust it to get me there!

You should ask about LDN and also consider taking s300mg Alpha Lipoic Acid to detox the liver. I think think the ALA helped me get ride of the Pred in my system and therefore I didn't get side effects.

Thanks for the post! How long were you taking Mesalamine drugs? This is something I'll need to watch out for! I'm sensitive enough to Asacol..left me bed ridden after 1 dose of 4 pills! Apriso is better as it's time release...but any drug used on a long term basis is questionable to me.

I did some research on Imuran and 6mp. Apparently less people can tolerate the Imuran as it goes through an additional process to break down in your system. If I get there I'll try 6mp first...it's cheaper too. Also it takes 3 months to build up in your system. You should have already started it before tapering off the pred! Maybe it due to getting your liver back in order? Not sure how you'll react to the stronger meds if your liver function crashed on the low end drugs!

Well.. there's always surgery if you want to go drug free. I'm always keeping that in mind. No need to mess my body up anymore with this toxic drugs!

I too love being on prednisone- only time I have energy and feel normal. I don't have the increase in appetite so I don't have the weight gain. It's coming off of it that kills me. I'm almost off it if (have been on 6 months this time for really bad flare) and now I have no energy, am moody, have body aches and really bad anxiety. I just wish I could feel normal without medication!! On another note, I started entyvio this past December and it is working well to control my flares and I haven't experienced any side effects like I did with remicade and humira. Hope you all get the relief and normalcy we all are looking for!