Prednisone - How Bad Could It Be?

Hi Julie

You sound worried as one would be at the beginning. I was diagnosed in 1994 and only ever on prednisolone when my platelets drop low enough. And yes whilst am on prednisolone it does mess with blood sugar levels etc and when I was in for days back at boxing day they tested my blood sugar level every day. (though I believe there may have been some mix up because the nurse was suprised when I said wasn't diabetic ) But prednisolone can mess with a lot of the body and once you have completely finished them certainly my body is normal for me once again. So it may be that once you finish the prednisolone you will no longer be diabetic - pre or otherwise

The main advice I can give is to take each day as it comes and seize the day! We can and do get caught up in numbers and bruises but in the end it about making the most of our individual lives the best way we can. A tip to help handle extreme fatigue however is to eat something every 3 hours. It could be an apple/banana if you are not due to a meal. Plus regular water though you may do both anyways with being a fitness person. The other thing is not to compare yourself against how you were. You will be miserable if you do that I know....:sick: It easy to say, keep positive especially when you are feeling extreme fatigue. But you are doing well to even get to the gym never mind following a routine a few days as tired as you are. Please don't push yourself too hard though because you will only do yourself more damage in the long run, making it harder to recover once in remission so to speak. You may be one of the lucky people who never have it again. We really cannot tell.
Seize the day! live for today! and you will achieve.

Thank you for that insight... I am slated to get another CBC on Friday, (as well as get IVIG). We will see what my counts are then. I've been off Prednisone for 1.5 weeks now.

Really bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am 25 years old, started taking prednisone during my pregnacy last year(I was 24) because my plateles were between 84,000 and 134,000 and the hematologist started me on 40mg/day and lowered to 30mg then 20mg then 10mg. I took it for 9 months the whole time I was pregnant and a little after I gave birth. During my pregnancy only 3 months after I started taking the medication I started feeling pain in my groin, hematologist said it had nothing to do with his treatment and ob dr said it could be the baby sitting on a nerve. After I gave birth and the pain did not go away and and an MRI I found out I had avascular necrosis in my hip and I just had a total hip replacent surgery because of this. It is horrible, the pain I was feeling before and after the surgery, the recovery especially because I have a baby to take care of. Please be sure you really need the medication, sometimes doctors are wrong. Before I knew nothing about this medication and just followed the doctor's order, today after all my research I find that I didn't need any treatment at all, just monitoring. Now I am sure that every medication is a DRUG it may help you in you way but destroy you in another, so be carefull!

So sorry to hear this. They should have told you. That's a well known side effect of steroids. I was warned about about AVN when I started on steroids. You may have made the decision to take them anyway, but at least you should have been told.

Lily

Thank you. Unfortunately they did not tell me, I guess because I was a medicaid patient the dr walked in and out of the office so quickly, did not explain anything to me.

Ohhh prednisone,
I was diagnosed with ITP in early 2008. My count was 1 and I spent a week in the hospital getting daily IVIG's. I was put on heavy doses of prednisone for a year,finally did the tapering thing. By the end of 2009 I was told I was in remission,but by then the prednisone had done its damage and ruined my hip requiring a replacement. Which was replaced by the faulty hip now recalled. That all led to my counts bottoming out again and now in 2011 a hip revision. The nightmare continues....

PREDNISONE MYOPATHY!!
I have been to a myriad of drs, from neuros to rheumys and they have diagnosed me with Prednisone myopothy which causes a deep aching muscle fatigue- every day, every minute every second. It started one month after being on 100mg of prednsone (plus iv solumedrol for 3 days) in 2008. I have since had another solumedrol drip and three more long shitty tapers. My thigh muscles feel like they weigh 700lbs and physicl therapy hasnt worked. The drs say it takes as long as you were on it, once you STOP taking them for you to get back to yourself, if you ever do.
It is an insidious disease.
Prednisone saved us but left a mark.

I took prednisone for 3 months and tapered off of it completely in february. However once I started tapering my hair started to fall out. Has anyone else experienced this? Two months later I've lost over 1/3 of my hair and it is just getting worse. Please, anyone know how I can stop this? My doctor recommended Nioxin...does it work?

Re pred myopathy - I was on pred for about 2 years, doses between 20-60 mg/day. When I tapered and stopped I had the myopathy for about 4 months after I was totally off it. The thigh muscles were really bad and also my neck muscles. I was afraid it was permanent. It totally went away after the 4 months clean. Once I started to come out of it a little, light exercise seemed to help. Nothing else helped. It was pretty bad and really scary.
Erica

Yes! I had terrible blurry vision when I was on pred. My eyeballs actually hurt and it got to where I didn't drive unless absolutely necessary. The taper is tough and you may have to increase your dose back up for a day or two before you can go back down again. I think if its a side effect of prednisone then I experienced it! Good luck