Prednisone and pain/relief
Hi all,
I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease last week and prescribed 60mg of Prednisone. I was hoping to see some relief but it’s been 6 days and I’m still in severe pain. I just wanted to see if anyone could give me an idea of when I might see some improvement.
Hi @mjo-2021, thank you for sharing and I'm sorry that you're going through that pain! Prednisone can work differently for everyone, but I do recommend reaching out to your doctor to ask what to do if you're not seeing a difference on it. From my experience with the community, 60 mg is a fairly high dose, so you'd hope a week would be enough time to see a difference--but your doctor may say differently based on your individual situation! I will say that for me Prednisone did not make a huge difference, but the steroid Budesonide, used up my rectum in a foam form, did wonders. So it may be too that there are other drugs that would be a better fit for you! Since you've recently been diagnosed, there's probably going to be a large learning curve for both you and your doctor, so I advocate for keeping your doctor in the loop and asking as many questions as you can so that you both start to understand your unique body's situation. I hope this helps some and please feel free to ask any other questions! Also, do you have a treatment plan outside of the Prednisone? Are you going on a more long-term drug at any point? -Eshani (IBD Team Member)
60 mg is not a high dose?? And it can take up to 2 weeks before you see some improvement and then start tapering off. Prednisone is a short term treatment.. Hi
, thank you for your comment. As I mentioned in my original comment, I spoke only from my own experience/experience with others in the community. When I was on 40 mg of Prednisone, every doctor I saw (which were many, as I had just been hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism) mentioned 40 was a high dose. This may not be the case for everyone, and may have been due to my particular circumstances. In addition, Prednisone is meant to be a short term treatment but is not always for everyone. I know many people who have been on it for over 2 weeks as they wait for biologics to kick in, etc. Each person's situation is very different, so I always recommend reaching out to a doctor if the patient is concerned, as it is a patient's right to discuss their situation and alter their treatment plan if they would like to. Hope that you are well, and thanks again for your response. -Eshani (IBD Team Member)
60mg is very high. IV Steroids work wonders on me, and oral steroids do not work at all for me - they give me all the nasty side effects and no pain relief and my pain got worse and worse as I tapered.
I changed Gastroenterologist, he changed my treatment plan, added a few different oral medications, including steroids, but lower doses until my new infusion kicked in and within 3months I am in clinical remission for the first time in 12 months.
I would suggest a new specialist as I was going backwards for 9 months with my other specialist.
Good luck, you are not alone.
Newts.Hi Newts, it's very interesting to hear that IV steroids work for you but oral does not. When I took Prednisone, the tablets did very little for me. I wonder if IV would have worked better. It may be something I can bring up with my doctor if we ever talk about using steroids again. I also found that rectal steroids worked well for me (like a foam enema).
I'm so glad to hear that you are doing better now! I definitely agree that it's good to find the doctor that understands your disease and works hard to make sure you're feeling better. Hope that you stay in this remission for a long while! <3 -Eshani (IBD Team Member)
in the UK, having to be admitted and given IV steroids is something that's usually done when you're nearing the surgery stage, and they would like to move you away from that point. It tends to work very quickly. Having said that, people do build up a tolerance over time, so I guess if the oral steroids don't work, it would make the IV slightly less likely to? When it's oral, it's Pred, but when it's IV, its equivalent is hydrocortisone. So I am not certain whether becoming steroid-dependent or steroid-resistant with Pred would mean that hydrocortisone is less effective too.
- Sahara (team member)
I have only just seen your post. How are you doing?
- Sahara (team member)Sahara. I have methyl prednisone IV, which works a treat. I am nowhere near the surgery stage. Oral prednisone does not work on me all all.
