Prednisolone Help!

refereerick

Hi all,
Just a quick question or two.
I had been on 40mg of pred for a couple of weeks up until Saturday. Friday I went to the hospital to see the rheumy for the first time and she gave me a steroid injection. She also gave me more pred as a rainy day item but then said it was down to 20mg for a week on the label. I'm not on any metx or anything yet until my liver tests are back, just cocodomol.
The last couple of days i've been in excruciating pain, no sleep etc, the questions are- Is the steroid injection actually more steroid or is it to encourage my ststem to produce more, and do I need to take this course of pred to ween me off the stuff?
I'm at my wits end here and I dont want to overdose or anything silly like that. Can I take paracetamol and ibuprofen instead of the cocodomol to help with pain? Sorry so many questions and I know you're not doctors but any help/advice would be so very much appreciated
Rick xx.

mig

Morning Rick,Cant really help as i was only on pred for a short course and even then i had to reduce slowly,i did have a steriod injection once but i cant say that it helped,my consultant did say its very much hit and miss with them,at present i am on codeine for pain its very effective for me but i have to be very careful as once i took too many and it took me a long while to reduce the dose,i am also on naproxen and a stomach protector ,if need be i can take some paracetamol even with these you have to be careful you dont take too many.Sorry its a bit of a ramble,may a bit of it might help.(((()))) Mig

stickywicket

Pred isn't a med to be messed with and, if in doubt, you should get proper medical advice and, right now, I guess that would be best achieved by ringing NHS Direct though, if you have a duty pharmacy open nearby, the pharmacist would probably be able to give advice.

The steroid jab is just that and my guess is that the rheumatologist meant it to ease you off the oral steroids. Unfortunately, for some people the oral steroids work beautifully and the general jabs, for some reason, don't.

It's normal to reduce steroids gradually but possible (I'm only theorising) that, as you've only been on them a short time, she did envisage the jab taking over and you stopping the oral ones after a week. I'd check this out if it were me.

As for paracetamol and ibuprofen instead of cocos - well, it sounds OK to my non-medical ears but a prescription for stronger cocos or a different painduller might be better.

I really think your best bet is NHS Direct.

refereerick

Thanks for all the replies guys 8)

Thankfully things have eased a bit after getting up this morning so I think i'll give the pred a miss for now and stick with the cocodomol as needed. Its typical this happens on a 4 day weekend but come Wednesday i'll get some advice from the GP or the Rheumy. Until then hopefully things will settle down and I can last out until then.

Thanks for all your help, Rick xx