prednisone and diabetes | Arthritis Information

 

Hello everyone, I just had a quick question. I had my appt with my RD today, I have been pretty sick with bronchitis and a really nasty lupus flare so my prednisone was increased from 10mg to 30 mg daily. My blood work came back showing elevated sugar levels which the dr explained is pre-diabetic due to the prednisone. I have been on prednisone for over 8 years, horrible I know, but everytime I try to wean my body flares horribly with fevers that basically keep me bedridden, they get up as high as over 103. I am dropping the dosage to 20 and hopefully will beable to slowly start getting it down I am a little freaked out about this. My question is has anyone experienced this problem? And if so when you started weaning the prednisone did things go back to normal blood sugar wise? I dont need to deal with diabetes on top of the RA and the lupus I am feeling a little bit overwhelmed any response would be greatly appreciated! I should have asked these questions at the drs appt today but I really wasnt thinking about it at the time. Thank you for your time in reading this long post!

Hi, Angel,

Yes, I have experienced this problem when I take prednisone. It raises my blood glucose to prediabetic, even diabetic levels. When I wean off the prednisone, it goes back to normal, or near normal.

VThank you Vee for your response. That is good news, I feel a little bit better about it now!  Well  maybe call the Doctor and ask him tomorrow. Try not to freak out. It sounds like you have enough on your plate. I would concentrate on feelling better. It seems it is one thing after another with auto immune disease. Thank you Milly, you are right I just need to make a list of questions for the dr. I have a follow up appt soon, just had a moment...the idea of having something else added to the list of health issues scared me. Thank you for your encouragement.  I have those moments all of the time. So I totally understand the anxiety and where it is coming from. Just a part of it all I guess.

Your sugars should go back to normal.  Long term pred use can cause some damage that can't be reversed.  I have to test my sugars during the day.  I've been on pred for 8yrs and my system is totally shot.  We are still hoping that as we taper, things will return to normal.

Thank you everyone for your warm responses, sometimes thats all you need to feel better about things. The lupus always seems to give me the most trouble, I have quite a bit of damage and pain from the RA but those fevers and just the overall feeling of being sick is harder to deal with, I can do my daily tasks even with the RA pain but when you have a fever of 103 your pretty much in bed until it clears up!
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