flu aggravated by prednisone? | Arthritis Information

Hi all!
     As you may have read at the end of the thread "toughing it out in Arizona", I had a most remarkable relief from almost all my PMR symptoms from just a trial dose of eleven 10 mg. prednisone tablets. Even now, a week or so after being off pred. altogether, I still have very few PMR symptoms.
     However, within a day or two of being off pred. I got the flu. It has hung on now for over a week (very unusual for me as I can usually kick anything like this in a day or two.)
     I'm thinking maybe the pred. suppressed my immune system and allowed the flu to take hold, perhaps by suppressing the coughing that would have normally gotten all that rotten tasting green mucus up from my lungs.
     By the way, this is the first year I've gotten a flu shot!
     Also, perhaps unrelated, about the time of the end of the pred. I fell off my bicycle (being chased by a dog, trying to dismount, not getting foot unclipped from the pedal in time), and wrenched my back. In a few days I felt a knot in my upper chest at about the point where all that icky sputum was felt to be lodged.
     So now I'm trying to kick-start my immune system, taking herbs like ginseng and echinacea (which I avoided before), and in doing so perhaps risking the return of the PMR (which I can feel lurking around the edges)
seca

If I was you I would head off to the GP and ask for antibiotics quickly.

They will knock whatever it is that is lurking and perhaps stop the pmr in its tracks.
Hi tom!

I think it is unlikely you got the flu because the pred suppressed your immune system as that is a longer term effect and not one from 11 x 10mg tabs. I've been on steroids for 17 months and in fact have had fewer colds than usual! My daughter has had flu jabs as an at risk person (asthma and working in the health care sector) and for the last 2 years has developed a chest infection within days of having the flu jab. Last year it didn't clear with a single course of antibiotics and she had an awful time and even her GP says in retrospect they should have upped the antibiotics and will do so in a similar situation again - this in a country where it is difficult to persuade the dr to provide them on the basis of a history of asthma followed by chest problems if no antibiotics are given.

So, probably coincidence. And I'm sure that falling off my bicycle in July contributed to the PMR flare I've had over the summer!

cheers, MrsE

Yes, it's probably coincidence.
Somehow it all feels relevant when it's happening to oneself!
      However, regarding the suppression of the immune system, it has been my understanding that that's what happens right away, and is what causes the symptoms to recede. After all, this disease is supposedly an over-reaction of the immune system.   Have I got it wrong?
Also, antibiotics for the flu?
I thought anti-biotics were ineffective against viruses.
Speaking of pains lurking around the edges, each day I find an old PMR pain resurface, and I'm beginning to question my remembrances of how it came on before.
     As I recall, the PMR came on suddenly, but now I'm thinking maybe it snuck up on me slowly unnoticed til the point where I "locked up"
     I love this board, thank you for your helpfulness.
Tom - the suggestion of antibiotics was not for the flu (viral) but to deal with the secondary infections that are very common (bacterial) and may cause the chest gunk. Disputed by many but if your asthma/other issues are such that the bunged up lungs develop bright green gunk then it may be a sensible precaution. You can have the technicolour bit with viral infections too it now seems BUT...

Once you are on steroids your body doesn't react to the stress of infection well and it may take a long time to get over something. And if you have an infection then the PMR that was controlled by last week's steroid dose may resurface under the stress of this week's infection. A case where one drug more may actually be helpful in the slightly longer term. I'm just not entirely convinced by the assertion that you will get everything just because you are taking steroids which some people believe - there is certainly a risk with chicken pox and real flu.

Hope you're feeling better,

MrsE

Well it's been a couple of weeks and the flu symptoms have subsided, only a bit of an nagging cough now and then.
The great news is the PMR symptoms are also pretty much gone, even after stopping the diclofenac!
I'm not 100%, still some shoulder aches and slight pain in hips on standing, but the generalized inflammation is gone. My fingers aren't stiff and red and puffy, and that feeling of being imprisoned is gone.
I can't say what caused this turn of events, but I'm sticking to the anti-inflammation diet (per Monica Reinagel), and taking plenty of MSM, ginger, garlic, and tumeric.
Oh, and lots of fish oil. Antibiotic medications help to treat a wide variety of bacterial infections. Cefixime medication is a cephalosporin-type antibiotic, which works by stopping the growth of the bacteria in your body. It is mainly use for middle ear infections, skin infections, urinary tract infections and gonorrhea.

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