Prednisone does nothing for me?

I haven't posted on here in a while, mostly because I've been doing so well on LDN. I never quite reached fill remission though, still had some minor bleeding, but was down to 1-2 mostly solid bm's per day. I decided to try prednisone to achieve full remission, and figured LdN would keep me there. Well, I've been on prednisone for 12 days now and it's done absolutely nothing (in fact, gone a bit backwards, probably because I had to stop LdN). I started at 40mg for a week and am up to 50mg, the increased dose did nothing either. I tried prednisone briefly last summer, and it made me worse, then better once tapering off it. (Story on this thread https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=2785600)

It was my first time on it and didn't work then either (made things worse). Anyway it took me a full year to try again, I convinced myself that last summer there must have been something else going on and that's why it didn't work, because, well, prednisone works for everyone right??

Anyway, does anyone know why it wouldn't work? I'm a little worried about continuing on it for a long time and becoming steroid-dependent, I hate the long list of side effects and wanted this to be brief, looks like that isn't happening. It seems like some people with very severe symptoms may take a while to respond, or people who have been on steroids many times before, but I had VERY mild but just stubborn proctitis, and prednisone is doing absolutely nothing. Anyone have any ideas why this could be? I had liver enzyme tests last summer to see if there was a problem there and everything was normal. My doctor is stumped too. She wants me to try remicade, but that seems like a big step for a mild case of proctitis.

I'm currently on 4.5g sulfasalazine, turmeric, mostly paleo diet, vsl, 50mg prednisone. Stopped taking 4.5ldn when I started prednisone as they cancel each other out.

Thanks iPoop, I'd seen the term steroid-refractory before but thought it was always due to building a resistance over several bouts of prednisone use. A quick google search shows me that a certain few lucky individuals just don't respond to steroids for whatever reason, possibly genetic. darn :(

Anyone else steroid-refractory?

Steroids do nothing for me either now, and this is only my third time on them.

Are you not taking any enemas? If you only have proctitis, enemas are the best way to treat that, pills wont do nearly as much

I always thought refractory meant you had built up a tolerance too. Usually when I see people mention not having a response, they have been on it before And they are no longer responding. 12days at 40 and 50 is a lot. You probably should have seen some improvement. I have stubborn mild inflammation too, mostly in the rectum. Very frustrating. I also don't think it's fair to call it mild, sometimes my symptoms are really terrible.

The last time I was on pred I think I took 20 mgs for a week, 10 mgs for a week, and then 10mgs every other day for two weeks.

I think I'll wait it out until I talk to my doctor on Monday, so that will be 16 days on prednisone, if that doesn't do it, I'll be getting off as quickly as I can and I won't second guess myself again. I wonder if my years of taking topical steroids for psoriasis screwed up my bodies ability to process it somehow. It was Jill Smith who suggested not taking LDN until down to 20mg of prednisone. I was taking it anyways for a few nights and found my heart was pounding like crazy after taking the ldn and worried it was the mix so stopped it.

Andrina, do you know it was the Uceris that worked better than prednisone for you, or was it maybe just the Imuran kicking in? I think Imuran may be my next line of defence if this round of steroids doesn't do it.

The enyzme in your liver ( p540 ? ) that breaks pred down into prednisolone is impaired. Fix that.

I did that and only solumedrol IV would help because it does not pass thru liver to be useful.

I am also steroid refractory. I was on anywhere from 35-60 mg of pred a day for about 3 months and my UC just kept getting worse. My GI kept me on it just in case it was at least keeping me from getting EVEN worse, since I was in horrible shape! My UC advance so quickly, that without the help of steroids to lessen my symptoms, I didn't have time to try many drugs/therapies and ended up getting surgery. Hopefully you have more time to find something that will work for you!

I was lucky in that I didn't have any trouble getting off of the prednisone. My surgeon had me start tapering once I was discharged from the hospital after surgery. So all total, I guess I was on pred for 4 and a half months. I did have some side effects while I was on it, but nothing near as bad as I know it can be. The worst thing that happened as I tapered was my lady mustache got a little worse and a lot of my hair fell out. The hair falling out could've been because of the surgery and malnutrition the preceded it though.

And actually, for me at least, surgery WAS a great choice! Of course there are concerns and possible complications, but I have been very happy with the outcome.