Anyone here on Prednisone?

lbwp

I am 40 yr. old (F) & began seeing a Rheumy 3 mo. ago. They put me on low dose prednisone along with diclofinac & wkly. inj. of methotrexate 20mg. This is my 2nd time in the last 10wks. of trying to be weaned off the prednisone. They had me take 5mg. pill once a day for 2wks., then 5mg. pill every other day for 2 wks. & then a half a pill every other day for 2 wks. Each time I start the every other day pill my pain comes back. Dr. told me that I must come off the prednisone this time around & I have only been on it for 10wks. total. Dr. told me the prednisone will cause me a lot of harm if taken for long periods of time & I must stop taking it. The plan was for the MTX to kick in & be working while I was being slowly weaned off the prednisone. I started off on 15mg. inj. of MTX & I was just increased to 20mg. 2 wks. ago. It does not seem to be working unless I take the prednisone w/it. I think it is the prednisone that works & not the MTX. Since my prednisone has been reduced, I am back in some pretty bad pain in my hands/lower arms. The pain is making me crazy. I can hardly stand it & I cry a lot from the pain & uselessness of my hands. The Dr.'s are going to have to try adding some other drug to my MTX very soon. What their drug of choice will be next I don't know but they better be doing something pretty fast or I'm gonna end up a divorcee! This hand pain is greatly interfering w/my life as a whole & I have 18mo. old b/g twins who really need me to be strong & healthy. I feel weak & helpless to this pain/illness. The Dr.'s don't even really know what kind of inflammatory disease it is that I have because my blood test was neg. for Rheumatoid arthritis. I do have 5 of the 7 symptoms listed for that diagnosis though.

nooyawker

I feel bad for you trying to take care of twins with RA. I think the first thing to do is get a definitive diagnosis. You could still have RA without rheumatoid factor. I think after 3 months if a med. isnt working, the doc. will try something else. There are many different meds. out there. I took mtx for a while - it didnt seem to do much. I myself am now taking enbrel which seems to be working pretty good (expensive though.) I have prednisone that I use as needed (5 mg.) during bad times. My doc. is OK with this. I dont take it unless absolutely necessary. I also take 500 mg. naproxen most days and usually by 9 AM I am feeling pretty OK. Not ready for a marathon but get done everything I need to do. Its true though you cannot take pred. indefinitiely. It can cause osteoporosis and worse. I also get some relief from a hot wax machine for the hands. (Softens the skin too!) You may need to get some sort help with the twins. Or at least with the housework. If youre not satisfied with your doctor switch to another. Thats what I had to do. Hope this helps.

Bruce

prednisone is a steroid, and if you take heavy doses for a long time it will suppress your immunity. you will then be susceptable to many infectious diseases.

I have osteoarthritis in both knees and can relate to your pain. After receiving a couple of injections of cortisone, i learned the shots n longer worked and now take 800 mg of generic ibuprofen. It doesn't work perfectly, but that is as good as it gets.

Your doctors should never keep you on predisone longer then recommended.

bruce

karen_73

Hi there, Yes I am on Prednisone as well as others.... have been on pred and MTX for over a yr now... and cant get weaned off it either...i go off it, and i cant move literally....

Bob2

Taking Ibuprofen is not as good as it gets. You should look at my post on Turmeric. The Ibuprofen could cause you to have ulcers after long useage. Turmeric and several other herbs are excellent anti-inflammatories and have no bad side affects.

Bruce

I am aware of the side effects of ibuprofen, however, i have taken this drug for over 30 years and have never had a side effect.

Herbs taken to treat an ilness are drugs and all drugs have side effects. Herbs are classified as dietary supplements, wich means the companies producing the drug doesn't have to prove it is safe, and also are not allowed by law to claim the substance can cure a disease.

You may be brreaking a law by promoting a herb as a trreatment for a disease. If you doubt what i am saying. go to a health food store and read the warning l requirred by the FDA.

For the most part, i believe most suppplements are a rip off, because most of them have never had scientific studies proving their claime.

Before promoting a drug (herb) that you claim have no side effects, you should post scientific studies. What i mean by that is a double blind study performed by a reputable source such as the Mayo Clinic with at least several hundred patients. You are wasting your time trying to convince me your herb will relieve the pain of arthritis, because i don't believe it.

I posted here because i feel it is sad that doctors over prescribe pred. and causing more problems with the addictive patient. If i were one of these patients, i would be very upset with their doctors.

We should learn to think for our selves, and speak up if we don't agree with the doctor. It's our body and we get the last word.

Bruce

suthrun

Well this is day one of trying to wean off prednisone. I can already tell a difference in my pain.

Ugh it is not easy. Thank you all for your answers and take care.

AussieChick

I am also trying to get of prednisone and am on Mtx 10mg weekly plus vioxx. Down to 2.5 mg Pred but do notice a huge return of pain and stiffness unfortunately. I often wonder whether the moodiness is caused by the steroid?? Or just the frustration of pain?? Or RA itself??? Regardless i'm getting off it ASAP. All the best to you!!

__________________
J

Bob2

More power to you. If you think ibuprofen is what is best for you great. I'm not breaking any laws by writing about what I do. Turmeric has thousands of years of history on its side. If you eat curry, you eat turmeric; if you eat normal american mustard you eat turmeric, the high yellow color comes from turmeric. I doubt very much if ibuprofen will even be know 100 years from now, let alone 1,000 years from now. I could tell you to post the double blind studies on the safety of ibuprofen, too.

My only thought is that I watched my father suffer with arthritis for 40 years. He took the NSAIDS the doctor prescribed for him all that time and had bleeding ulcers several times. We in the family for most of those years thought the doctor was prescribing something that would cure him. As far as I have ever heard, no doctor has ever prescibed anything that can cure arthritis. Since there is no medicine that will cure arthritis, my thought is I will take the best pain killer I can find. For me that is turmeric.

MaggieJ119

You have to ween yourself off of it. Ask a doctor to help you. I have been on and off of it a few times. You need to get off, there are long term affects for it.