Prednisone side effects

Hello everyone, hoping you are all having your best day.
I am still dealing and trying to keep going. But I am having some trouble.
I am down to 15 mg of Pred (from 50mg) for today and tomorrow, and then to 10 mg where I have been asked to stay for thirty days. We hope that it will be enough to keep my platelets from dropping again.
My problem is the fatigue and fuzzy head.
I feel so guilty for not having the ambition to do anything. Not that I don't want to do anything but I just seem to have no energy at all. Plus the fuzzy head and memory/confusion issues are driving me crazy. It takes all I have to concentrate on what I am doing, or what I am supposed to be doing next. It's like I my brain is asleep or swimming or floating somewhere not attached.
It is no fun, it is wearing me out. I feel like I am dragging myself no matter what I try to accomplish, so much so that I am to tired to keep trying. So I just lay around like an old dog. Then I feel so guilty about that.
Can anybody shed some light on this? I do not feel depressed just dog tired. I have a million things I would like to do and just can't, I just want to watch a movie and sleep. That's not me at all. I am the one that could never sleep in the daytime.
If it is the pred taper can anyone tell me how long it might take to come out of it?
Thanks allot, Sandy Too.

As you are finding out, steroid withdrawal can be worse than being on steroids. The faster the taper, the worse the withdrawal, so you might ask for a slower taper.

Below 10 mg the taper becomes increasingly difficult, especially the longer you have been taking prednisone. Prednisone mimics your body's cortisol, which is naturally produced by your adrenal glands in an amount equivalent to 5-10 mg of prednisone. The prednisone suppresses the production of cortisol, and over time the adrenal glands atrophy, and become unable to take up the slack when prednisone is removed, unable to provide the 5-10 mg of cortisol your body normally needs (and more in case of stress or infection).

Here is a very relevant thread on steroid tapering and adrenal insufficiency:

pdsa.org/forum-sp-534/7-treatment-general/29130-steroid-tapering-secondary-adrenal-insufficiency.html#54152

Sandy - there isn't much you can do about it. You just have to ride it out and take one day at a time. For me, it took a few weeks after I was off of Prednisone completely to start to feel normal. I remember trying to work like that and even sitting in my chair was a huge effort. It is an exhausting process. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and you just have to focus on that.

boy I am tired...I just replied and don't know what happened to it! LOL!
thanks for the reply, it makes me feel better and less guilty even if it can't make me less fatigued.
I do not have the worry of adrenal insufficiency. I have Primary Addison's Disease. My adrenals just quit working about 35 years ago. I am on a 7.5 mg replacement dose of pred.
I wonder now how that affects a high dose pred taper.
I know that in the case of an acute situation, flu or what ever, my adrenals cannot make more of the fight of flight hormones that they should in such an event. This always makes dealing with acute stuff more challenging and takes much longer to clear things.
I feel like I have been sitting around since the first of September this time and getting pretty much zero accomplished. I am doing my best to be patient. If I count since the ITP started it is 7 months of doing not much but being sick and miserable.
My hubby and I talked about that recently, with regard to any treatment plan. We wonder if doctors really understand the seriousness of being down and out for such long lengths of time in the life of someone like me?
They are so busy that when I leave the clinic I am forgotten. Do they understand the impact of any one treatment whether high dose pred or second line drugs, can have long term on their patients quality of life? At this point I am wondering about getting right again after this prednisone blast, thanking them for their time, and walking away with what quality I did have before the ITP. thanks, Sandy Too

Quality of life can be an issue. Luckily with ITP, it is usually temporary.

Try to keep doing your normal things as much as possible. Prednisone can cause muscle wasting and it's best to keep active to avoid that.

I know it feels like it will never end, but I promise, everyone gets to a better point eventually.

Sandy Too wrote: ...
I do not have the worry of adrenal insufficiency. I have Primary Addison's Disease. My adrenals just quit working about 35 years ago. I am on a 7.5 mg replacement dose of pred. I wonder now how that affects a high dose pred taper.
...

Ooops! I forgot you had Addison's.

Cortisol is involved in cellular processes throughout your body, and at higher doses of glucocorticoid steroids like prednisone, the cells in your body adapt to the higher levels, by becoming "glucocorticoid resistant". This is analogous to insulin-resistance in metabolic syndrome. When you reduce the prednisone from high levels, it takes time for your body to readjust, and that can be unpleasant.

thanks Rob, I shall study what you have posted, maybe after all these years I can begin to really understand prednisone...it's funny I can't even find a monograph for prednisone, I like to read the physicians version as it gives a much more true description, but I can find nothing from any big pharma with regard to prednisone...and doctors well I find they really don't dwell on the effects of.... only that it works on what-ever problem.
Thanks Sandi, I continue to try. it's hard and I admit that sometimes I don't know why I would want to go on trying...
Today I awoke at 3 am with the worst ice-pick headache....I couldn't even see straight everything was unfocused and blurred...I took some Tylenol and then slept between the pain for a couple of hours as I was so sleepy and my head felt "full" or "pressure"....then I finally gave up and got up had my coffee and meds and did my best to settle things with my ice pack.....then I got very sleepy/dopey and passed out cold for about 3 hours didn't even hear the phone ring next to my bed...finally hubby came to check on me and woke me and I was right out of it.... my head is still fuzzy now after an hour and a half, dizzy and weak, and frustrated!... and my nose still bleeds and my ear and jaw hurts and I wonder what the heck???
I think I might still be battling the same bacterial infection I had from weeks ago...it never really left and my sinus's are not good...but my GP does not want to give me more antibiotic since the first bladder infection...what to do? Checked my platelets yesterday though and they are still at 262 and I am now down to the 10 mg pred dose...time will tell now.
Thanks, Sandy Too

finally go to be too much, and I went to the ER to see a doctor last night...I only have a nurse practioner....
seems I do have a sinus infection and the doctor said that the norfloxacin for the earlier UTI would not really be the best choice for the sinus problem...so more anitbiotic and I am excited for about 3 days from now when I start to feel normal again...well except for my stomach...antibiotics are hard on my stomach...can't win...
but the entire ordeal which is repeated constantly with me, is a concern. When I think of the second line treatment options given to me for the ITP, I wonder, if I can't even get proper support for an acute infection for weeks until I can't hardly stand how am I to get support for any problem with the second line drug administration or after? Who wants to be as sick as many of you post about and have to drive two hours to get help? It's a problem here in this small town.
Sandy Too

For those of us who get frequent sinus infections we know when we have one but we still have to wait a certain length of time before an antibiotic will be given - that's how it is with my doctors anyway.

I'm glad you are on the road to recovery from that sinus infection!! Can you take a probiotic or a good yogurt to help with your stomach & intestines while on an antibiotic? Know you have to watch when dairy is consumed with some of them. But I would think a probiotic capsule would be all right - that's what I do anyway.