the Evil Prednisone

My GI refuses to give pred.

I think it's pretty funnt that this article thinks 5mg/day is a high dose of systemic steroids. Wonder what they would call the 120mg/day IV I was on in the hospital...

It also puts you at risk for infections.

Thanks for posting. I know we often discuss how terrible pred is, but sometimes we just talk about pimples and weight gain (especially me) - not to downplay those things, because they are terrible, but there are much bigger dangers than a fat face.

I know it's bad for you overall, but darn it makes me feel good again. A week ago I was sitting in my chair all day long, tired and cramping and depressed as hell and with zero energy.

Now I have a little bit of get up and go back and I'm able to get things accomplished during the day. Can't sleep much at night, but I'll catch up when I start tapering. Oh yeah, I can eat things without it sending me straight to the toilet. And did I mention no cramps?

Yup love and hate relationship for sure! 60mg of prednisone is always immediately effective in decreasing BMs, but even if the inflammation is starting to heal you're still stuck tapering with nasty side effects ( some of which seem worst or comparable to UC symptoms).
The chronic fatigue, aches/bodily pain, heart palpitations and significant hair loss were the worst of my side effects, but suffice it to say- I never plan on putting prednisone in my body again unless I'm dying and it's administered against my will. The quote escapes me now, but something like: "The patient must heal twice. Once from disease and once from medication."

Wow so glad I found this! Was just Rxd pred after a colonoscopy Monday, but my energy is good, my bathroom visits are manageable, my appetite is great and I'm able to work, sit through meetings and even last night had the energy to lightly workout! For now the side effects of the Pred are not worse than my symptoms (a few urgent watery Bms early in the day, occasional abdominal pain...no blood). Young resident was shocked I said no to 40mg pred just waking up from colonoscopy. Older GI just smiled at me and said "think about it...". I'm currently polling the people in my life who I know with UC about their pred use (odd that I know 4 people well enough to ask about their butts, but this is a 1 in 1,000 person disease?)....

Prednisone can be a miracle drug for some people and a nightmare for others. I was just diagnosed with UC but I've used Prednisone once before for a very serious problem. I was hospitalized for a very bad stomach infection about 5 years ago. I had lost a lot of weight very rapidly on a strict diet and as a result it caused my body to store fat in the bottom part of my belly in some abnormal way. A pocket inside the fat got infected and it felt like my belly was literally on fire.

They tried several antibiotics but to no avail and then they put me on a combo or Vancomycin and Clindamycin and upped the dose kind of high. Well it worked to knock out the infection but it had an adverse reaction to my kidneys. It nearly destroyed them and at one point the Dr's were even telling me I might be on dialysis the rest of my life.

One Dr. said he wanted to try Prednisone and at a pretty high dosage. He told me he had used it before in a similar situation and had good results. Well I took it and after a few weeks my kidney function had returned to normal. I remember having to taper off the prednisone and him telling me it was VERY important not to miss a tapered dose.

I actually loved/hated being on it because I was a large overweight person at the time and I had a lot of aches and pains in my joints and lower back every day. I remember the prednisone making me feel almost super human lol. Seriously I had a huge boost of energy and the pain in my joints went away. I was walking faster and not getting nearly as tired and I felt amazing. On the down side my appetite went through the roof and I craved food almost every waking hour of the day.

So it can help but it can hurt as well. For me it brought my kidneys back from the brink of no return and kept me from starting dialysis at an early age.

If my UC is resistant to these first few meds my Dr. has prescribed then I wouldn't hesitate if he wanted to put me on prednisone to see if it helps. Not looking forward to the increased appetite but if it works anything like it did for my kidneys then I'd give it a shot.

MissStacy said...
(odd that I know 4 people well enough to ask about their butts, but this is a 1 in 1,000 person disease?)....

Yeah the CDC's numbers are way off based on my own anecdotal evidence. Most recent estimates (as of 2015) are around 1.3% of the population has had an IBD diagnosis of some sort.