Prescription dosing mistake, know your doses! Given 80 mgs of prednisone

A reminder to folks to listen to your doctor's orally mentioned dose and then double check what you're given at the pharmacy. I went to pickup a new prescription at the pharmacy and nearly fell over backwards: 80 mgs daily of oral prednisone (that sort of dose isn't given orally, well maybe at the hospital under nurse supervision). The label read 20mg tablets, take 4 daily. Pharmacy said it was as prescribed and a few phone calls later the cause was my doctor entered it wrong on his computer screen, mistakes happen, we're only human. Should have been 20mgs x 1 a day. So be careful, and be aware of typical uc doses of common medications and what's appropriate for your current situation.

My symptoms have upticked over the last 3 weeks (from a consistent 1 bm a day to 4-5 with minor signs of blood on mucus and tp). A scope confirmed rectal-sigmoid mild level inflammation. Currently running the gambit of typical tests (cdiff, crp, and another infliximab serum trough and antibody test), oh the joys of uc. Not sure what it is, still solid bms and no real big urgency. Lucky I guess, a baby flare or blip. I was given the 20mgs pred and daily rowasa. The pred I hemmed and hawed about, but with an unknown cause (low remi serum levels? I'm at 4 weeks...) I'm not letting this turn into a bloodbath by potentially under-medicating. Get more test results, decide action accordingly, a short course won't kill me lol.

Sunday was the kicker/last straw, an hour drive in the afternoon to see my brother and I stopped 3 times to poop at shops along the way (after 2 before leaving the house). Seriously uc... jeesh? So, called doctors office on Monday and he got me in next day (Tues) for a scope. Huge props to their prompt scheduling and availability, the scripts uh well they should be a lot more careful.

Yikes!!!
Definitely good on you to question the rx. Hope things get under control quickly.

q

Thanks everyone. The moment you forget about uc is when it rears it's ugly head again. A 2 year remission was good, let's see if I can get right back into another..

I'm fortunate, as pred dropped bms from 5 back to 2 and the blood is now gone. Amazingly fast this time around with only mild inflammation (last time's severe inflammation is another story entirely lol). Quincy is likely proud of me, as I'm leaving the pharmacy with my big box of Rowasas lol.

Gotta say that I was really sorry to see that you are having some problems. Sounds like you are on top of it. May this pass very quickly!

You have to watch scripts closely. I often wonder about older people and those who don't ever question anything. My guess is there are probably a lot of people who are taking incorrect prescription meds.

Yeah, I discontinued 6mp in January 2016 under doctors advice and much soul-searching. I might be regretting that decision about right now, or at least it's one of many things running through my mind. Discontinuing 6mp was a risk, but one I was willing to take to ensure I wasn't over medicating as I'd been in a deep remission for a year and a half at that point. I suggested adding 6mp back now, doctor says we'll wait a few weeks, look at my tests (make sure it's not cdiff, etc.), see my response to rowasa+pred, and then we'll discuss adding 6mp back. I believe Keith, DB, or someone else previously said 6mp would stay in my system (have an affect) for about 6 months after discontinuing it. Seems about right on the mark when symptom-creep occurred. Hopefully the consequence isn't remi antibodies, that's another test coming up. Part of the reason I took the pred was just incase a large sleeping dragon of a flare is beginning to awaken from his long slumber and might soon rain copious amounts of hellfire down upon me lol. Best to reinforce my treatment just as a precaution.

Well I think my diet has been fairly uc friendly. My DW is a big proponent of healthy/sustainable eating, no real processed foods (other than an occassional Wendy's stop once or so a month), she's a conservation ecologist/biologist, you'd like her juststud lol. Nearly all organic foods in our diet, it's garden season so high vegetable content and reduced meat, and we've nearly eliminated grains as we've been trying to reduce our winter girth as a new years resolution thing and stuck with it. So, no pasta, bread, rice and so forth (except the aforementioned occasional guilty indulgence). We're not one hundred percent purists, as we do have a few guilty indulgences.

iPoop said...
Yeah, I discontinued 6mp in January 2016 under doctors advice and much soul-searching. I might be regretting that decision about right now, or at least it's one of many things running through my mind. Discontinuing 6mp was a risk, but one I was willing to take to ensure I wasn't over medicating as I'd been in a deep remission for a year and a half at that point. I suggested adding 6mp back now, doctor says we'll wait a few weeks, look at my tests (make sure it's not cdiff, etc.), see my response to rowasa+pred, and then we'll discuss adding 6mp back. I believe Keith, DB, or someone else previously said 6mp would stay in my system (have an affect) for about 6 months after discontinuing it. Seems about right on the mark when symptom-creep occurred.

That was probably me who said it, I had a similar experience when I stopped 6-mp. 6 months later I was in a flare. But stupid me, I discontinued 6-mp on my own because I didn't like it. I ended up in the hospital afterwards for my 2nd stint of Cyclosporine.

Fingers crossed!