Re: withdrawal symptoms or not? -- Steroid Warning Network

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 19:11:27 01/16/07 Tue
Author: becki (been there)
Subject: Re: withdrawal symptoms or not?
In reply to: becky 's message, "withdrawal symptoms or not?" on 16:37:39 01/15/07 Mon

>Maybe those of you with more experience can shed some
>light on this dilemma. My mother who is 82 years old
>and has numerous health problems including Congestive
>Heart Failure and COPD had a stent placed in August of
>06. The hospital stay exacerbated her COPD and well
>to make a long story short - for one reason or another
>she has been on and off prednisone since last August.
>She usually starts out with 40mg for several days
>until the COPD is better and then tapers down 10 mg
>every 3-5 days depending on how her breathing is until
>she is off. In November however we went on a family
>trip and she was well enough to go too.......so she
>stayed on 20mg every other day throughout the trip and
>did not taper down as usual. This lasted about two
>weeks. When we came home she tapered to 10mg every
>other day and then 10 mg every 3rd day and then off.
>This took until the end of November.........Suddenly
>about 3 days after she stopped the pred completely she
>began to get a bad backache. The nurse thought it was
>her kidneys but all bloodwork was normal. It
>continued to get worse and about a week after stopping
>the pred completely she went into horrible severe back
>spasms - so bad she could not walk and just screamed
>with pain. We took her to the ER - where many tests
>were run (bloodwork, xrays and CT scan of upper/lower
>spine)......all her cardiac workups were normal (for
>her anyway as she has a pacemaker) her CT and xrays
>did not show any new compression fractures (which they
>had feared as she has one that is a couple years old)
>bloodwork only revealed a slightly low Potassium. I
>brought up the Pred withdrawal but all docs seemed
>unfazed by this......... Sent her home with Davocet
>and Flexeril diagnosis a "pulled muscle" which I was
>suspicious about. Which did seem to help some but not
>a terrific amount. However about 2 days after being
>home she developed another COPD flare (from being in
>bed in the hospital - happens every time) and
>therefore began the Pred again at 40 mg daily. Within
>4 or 5 days she was much better and steadily improved
>over the next 2 weeks. She was on the 40 mg daily for
>5 days and then 30 mg daily for 4 days and then 20 mg
>daily for 4 days and then 20 mg every other day again
>for a week. By this time she was doing
>great...........breathing good, getting around good,
>stent has now healed and generally doing well. So now
>the drop to 10 mg every other day and about 5 days
>into this and ready to quit completely she tells me
>she is very fatigued, aches like the flu and headaches
>etc... The doc says we can go back to the 20 mg daily
>in case it is from withdrawal and this time not go to
>every other day to taper. Within 2 days of back on
>20mg daily she is feeling good again - out shopping
>one day - really did more than normal for her. By the
>next day she is complaining of a bad backache
>again......over the next couple of days the backache
>progresses to spasms coming once in a while again. So
>pred upped to 40mg daily. No change - in fact - now
>the spasms become nonstop 24/7 and she cannot sleep,
>hardly crawl to the bathroom etc...... We had started
>using the Darvocet and Flexeril again to try and stop
>this - but it was not doing a thing this time. So on
>New Years Day back to the ER. More tests - all okay -
>this time an abdominal CT - check organs, all fine -
>no aneurisym etc......bloodwork all normal. Sed rate
>even okay. In the hospital she is getting morphine IV
>- but even it is not stopping the spasms which will
>wake her up from sleep! Finally Tylenol with Codeine
>starts to help after a couple days and she is released
>on that medication and no other extra meds - told to
>stop Flexeril and also to stop her Requip in case it
>was an unusual rxn to the Requip. For a few days on
>the Tylenol/Codeine she is sort of okay then here come
>the spasms again. All this time she is on 40 mg /day
>pred (probably 5 days) - it does not seem to be
>helping her muscles at all but it is helping her COPD
>- (which had flared again in the hospital of course)
>Goes to her Neuro who was treating for the compression
>fracture - he reviews case and bloodwork and also
>agrees it is a "muscle problem" think it is due to
>severe arthritis that is inflamming the muscle fibers?
> Switches her to Hydrocodone plus tylenol.......better
>than the codeine for her COPD and bowel problems (she
>gets blocked with codeine)........first couple days it
>works okay too (by okay I mean she tolerates sitting
>in a chair to watch tv for a few hours a day - rest of
>time in bed - not anywhere near normal)then the spasms
>start again.....she is also being tapered on the pred
>again - got to 30 mg daily then the doctor was going
>30mg/20mg/30mg/20mg - I thought I noticed much more
>severe pain on the 20mg days but who knows at this
>point. We are at our wits end - she has been in bed
>now with only walking to the couch or to the bathroom
>since just after Christmas........what is going on? I
>am not buying a "muscle pull". So my question is can
>this be prednisone related? Can it be from too much
>and she now needs to taper off and it will eventually
>quit? Or is this a withdrawal that she just has not
>ever stopped by going back on it. I would have
>thought that the first time since she stopped the back
>spasms almost immediately after restarting the
>pred...........but this last time they continued right
>through the increasing of the dose back to 40mg daily
>for 5 days - though they did finally get some better
>and just about that time she was lowered to 30mg and
>they started all over again........
>
>I am frustrated because the doctors don't seem to
>think these kind of excruciating muscle spasms can
>come from the pred - either from the dose itself or
>withdrawal. But I have read differently. And she has
>never done this before - and this fall is the
>longest/most pred she has ever had for her COPD. So
>right now I am at a loss as to whether she should go
>back up on her dose for a week and see if it makes a
>difference or continue tapering down?!!
>
>Could this be related to the pred and if so any tests
>that could shed light on that fact? (check cortisol
>levels, etc) If it was withdrawal related should she
>have gotten better again the second time we increased
>her dose? And so if she did not get better on the 5
>days of 40mg daily then is it NOT withdrawal?
>
>I do believe the aches and flu like feeling and
>headaches were withdrawal as they went away in one day
>on a dose increase..........but it is the debilitating
>back spasms (she claims she cannot even breathe right
>- they are in her thoracic area and come around her
>chest/ribs) that are the worst and which I do not know
>if there is a link to her pred dosages or not.
>
>I am so sorry to take such a long post - but I am very
>frustrated right now and very worried that if this
>keeps up we are going to have a major complication due
>to her other health problems and lose her!
>
>Thanks for any help you can shed!
>Becky

becky,
I have been through something similar to your mom. I had the same kind of back pain but mine wasn't steroid withdrawl. It was steroids; they suppressed my immune system to the point I had a fungal infection in a discand 2 vertebrae. All of my drs thought pulled muscle too- from coughing. Then they finally did an xray and MRI. Most of the disc was already gone and part of the vertebrae too. Your mom's xrays/labs were ok so it wouldn't be that. It took 6mos of IV meds to get rid of the infection but the back pain lasted longer. Physical therapy is what finally got rid of the pain. When you spasm, your muscles put your spine in unnatural positions, you spasm more.... PT strengthened the "core muscles" of your trunk so the spine stays in a more natural shape. It was a challenge for me because I can't lay flat on my back, that is the only thing that still triggers the pain/spasms. Stretching helps alot too, but learn to do it under the supervision of a therapist. Hot or cold packs helped with the spasms/pain. My drs won't let me take steroids again because of the damage they did to other body parts as well.(I had rare,severe complications) It makes living with asthma interesting. If I can help in anyway,just ask.
becki

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Re: withdrawal symptoms or not? -- becky, 09:09:56 01/17/07 Wed