Prednisone

My daughter, 18, had a count of 13000 last Tuesday. She started Prednisone, 60 mg per day, on Thursday. How long does it take for the drug to kick in? She is very tired. Is that normal?

If a person is responsive to Prednisone, it can work within days. Everyone responds differently though. I'd be over 100 in about 4 days.

Some people feel tired when counts are down and some do not.

Good luck to your daughter.

Thank you. I am so anxious!

When I was first diagnosed my doc put me on 100mg a day. It did absolutely nothing for me but he made me stay on it for 4 weeks! Let us know how she's doing.

I was in the other category, I don't respond quickly. I got on 80 mg in the hospital and after 10 days my counts jumped from 8 to 20. I was released and sent home with a pred bottle filled with 100 tablets. The month that followed my counts teeter totter between 50 - 75. I was still taking 80 mg a day. However after 6 weeks and my counts double overnight. My tapering process was about 11 months, but I'm proud to say that my counts appear to be stable for now at 156 - 160.
Being tired is common, i recommend that if she is tired then she should rest. I noticed that my cbc results that followed days of feeling lethargic and weak resulted in increase in counts. I can't rationalize why this happened to me, but I got to a point that I could cope with sitting around the house all day, thinking that my body must be producing plts. Good luck.

Everyone seems to respond differently and at different times. My initial platelets were <2k. The Hemo doc started me at 80mg and within a week platelets approached 100k. I stayed on it for about 2 months and seemed to experience most every side effest listed.... and a few that were not listed. However as my prednisone dosage was reduced, the platelet count also dropped proportionately.

Yesterday her count was at 122 from 13 last Thursday. Tomorrow we visit the Hematologist. She is at 60 mg. Should we consider cutting back?

Some haematologists would say that she should continue on that dose until the count is in the normal range. You would then have more chance of it sticking when you taper. But you should take the advice of the doctor.

HI!!

I want to talk to you so much! I just joined this site. I'm on a rapid taper of Prednisone that I have UNFORTUNATELY been on since March 1. Would you be interested in speaking with me some time?? I'm not sure which is worse - being on Prednisone or coming off of it. Like you, as I taper my platelets tank. Doing Rituxan infusions now... I'm new to all this.

Lin

Sorry for not getting back to right away. I just started with this support group and I did not realise you had a question until yesterday. Thursday we will have a better idea on how the Prednisone is working. She dropped from 60 mg to 20 mg and her count hent from 233 to 118. Winrho might be next. I hope not.

Usually the doctor will say that the taper should be very slow with the idea of sort of tricking the body into leaving the platelets alone. To drop from 60mg to 20mg is a bit unusual.

That is a huge drop and it's very fast. It's not typical, as Ann said.

I actually preferred Win-Rho to Prednisone. It didn't work for me, but it ws easier to tolerate.