After a horrid two weeks I called my Rheumy and told him this "mystery joint pain" was getting to be too much lately. He decided to put me on a Medrol pack. The weird thing is this is the second time in one year that I've been on this Medrol pack and when I take it I feel VERY fatigued. When I was younger and had to take those packs for respiratory infections it made me feel wired. So what's with this fatigue deal? And I'm suppose to call him to let him know just how fast it worked to relieve the pain and then he said we'd talk about what med to try next. My question to you all is what is similiar to a steroid but w/ out the side effects? Since my other labs are still not back yet all we know is that I've had joint pain after a gastro illness for exactely one year now and FINALLY my sed rate is high and other test results are pending. Thanks for any info....... It's sad that I'm two days from stopping this medication as I know I'll be back in the pain boat again soon.
The fatigue is a side effect of the steroids I think. It could be from RA though as it also causes some seriously bad fatigue. I've been on a high dose of steroids for the last few months and they aren't sitting well with me anymore either. (I started at 100mg daily and have tapered to 45mg daily but this is still way too high) I'm sure he knows how fast it relieves the pain since it's a very potent drug. There is nothing that I know of that is as fast acting as steroids, not even NSAID's. Well, NSAID's may work quickly but they aren't nearly as potent as steroids. So in short, there isn't really anything as fast acting as steroids without the side effects that come with just taking the steroids. Maybe if you are diagnosed with RA or some other inflammatory arthritis one of the disease modifying biologics can be used but until then you may be stuck with just medrol or prednisone.