Dear folks, a good run down on Prednisone in Wikipedia, I can't believe there isn't another drug we can take until our RA meds work for us. I'm down from 3 to 2 and going to 1-1/2 next week. The list of bad effects are amazing.
sarah
Yeah...in a word...pred sucks. However, since our bodies do not produce enough corticosteroids on it's own, we unfortunately need pred sometimes to give our bodies the "boost" it needs to take care of inflammation. My hubby and son say "mom is zoning"!I thought people with RA produced a usual amount of corticosteroids, butMy paed thinks pred is the way to go - he's old fashioned but is 'concerned' about unknown side effects of injections that suppress immune system - thinks there is too much unknown. And its my 6yo daughter we are considereing these meds for (already been on pred - rheumy wants injections - paed thinks best to stick to long term pred!!!)
I am trusting our paed rheumy the most right now. I suppose its good to have different opinions to consider.
What do you all think about compared side effects between pred and injections (no I dont know which one yet). We want to do the right thing for our 6yo!
Pred pills are systemic and take a little longer to work. With the injections, they can place the steroid exactly where the most inflammation is and it works much more quickly. I've had numerous joints injected over the years like Gramm mentioned. I prefer to inject a joint verses taking it orally. I've been fortunate in the respects that my doctors have wanted to avoid long tern predisone use over the years. He won't do but a few in any joint in one year though. I can be dangerous if used too often.After taking for over a year and gaining 70lbs, I refused to take pred anymore. (In pill form) It's just a quick fix for me and I think the bad outweighs the good (haha literally) My immunity is bad enough without it. I also had severe side effects such as rapid heart beat, bulging eyes. & extreme sweating. I have had shots that don't seem to bother me like the pills but that has been awhile back.
That's my choice but I have seen lots of people take it for lots of different reasons not just ra. My friend got a rash the dr prescribed pred, my sister pulled a muscle the doc gave her pred., my son had a cold, the doc wanted to give it to him but I refused it.
If you have read any of my other posts, you will see I get all the weird illnesses so I don't need anything else to mess with my immunity.