how long for prednisone to work?

hi all. on my first round of prednisone ever during my current and worst flare. I'm on 40mg per day, I think for a week or 2, then it will be tapered. wondering how long it's taken some of you to feel better when taking prednisone? also how many of
you had the flare come back after stopping it?

I'm admitted to the hospital and they have me on antibiotics as well (there was evidence of an infection). they gave me a different steroid injection into the iv for 2 days before starting pred. also pepsid bc pred causes acid reflux. yikes!

Some report pred working within a couple of days, some in a week, others in 2 weeks. Mostly, it depends how much damage your uc flareup caused. The more damage incurred, the longer it takes to heal.

If you are not experiencing an improvement in uc symptoms within a couple weeks, then most certainly contact your GI as, something isn't right in that situation. Perhaps, you instead have cdiff that requires antibiotics if pred does nothing. Alternatively, you might need a higher dosage of pred in order to get a response.

can it have the "worse before it gets better" effect? last night was the worst night of my whole flare--so much pain and BMs every 5-15 minutes until 3am when they gave me an Imodium. woke up with cramps and had a few more BM, then they gave me the 40mg of pred and now my colon feels completely calm. blood tests this AM were also completely normal. can it really switch so suddenly like this? also terrified to eat anything...
thanks everyone !

anyone else wanna share their experiences with pred?

Prednisone did nothing for me. From what it sounds like to me... if you arent getting improvement within a few days-week... it might not be working for you.
Prednisone can be TERRIBLE to taper off of. not only with withdrawal or returning symptoms... but the fact that you can become dependent on it to keep you in remission.

Prednisone is my least favorite drug.

hey all, wondering if you can provide some insight again. i'm still on 40mg of prednisone (starting to taper next week). i take it in the morning and i immediately feel improved (calm colon, no BMs or gas) but by the evening it seems that the pred wears off and the cramps come back and I have diarrhea all night long. is this possible with pred, that it wears off over the course of a day? did anyone else experience this? thanks!

I also just started 40mg pred this past friday (5 doses so far). I have been in my worst flare since diagnosed 8 yrs ago. Had been going 20+ times a day. Now I feel some relief during the day but also feel the effect wears off later in the day and am also still waking up in the middle of the night abt 3 am then 5am, and continues through the morning til about 9:30. I was hoping to notice quicker improvement, I don't want to have to increase to higher dose. I'm hoping with more time it will continue to get better.

Keep us posted!

Good luck voletasam! I hope we both get better soon and have a smooth taper :)

I have been on 5 pred cycles in the last two years. The first time it seemed to take hours. I woke up the next morning thinking that i was done and that this was over. Since then, each time i have tapered, the flare has come back. Over time, the effectiveness of starting back up on prednisone has deteriorated to where it only gets me back to about 70% well.

I've never noticed a wearing off of it on a daily bases, nor a relief when i take it in the morning. I notice changes in effectiveness when tapering though when the UC isn't quite ready to go away.