Prednisone virgin - what to expect?

[CAMary]

Well I've managed to add yet *another* ailment to my resume... I ended up in the ER early Monday morning after a weekend with a "crick in my neck" which quickly escalated into the WORST pain I have ever experienced... I actually told Mike at 4 am to "get me to the ER asap or I'm going to down that entire bottle of Advil!" - Um yeah we were there 10 min later. Good thing when you walk in screaming of pain radiating down your ARM, they take you right back and you get to skip the annoying paperwork process...

Anyways one shot and some RX pain meds later and I was back home for breakfast...ER doc gave me a referral to a spine guy, who I saw today. I was thinking pinched nerve, but he feels it is likely a herniated cervical disc. MRI next week will confirm - today's x-ray showed nothing.

In the meantime I've got enough painkillers to supply Rush Limbaugh and I'm on a 6 day tapering course of prednisone. The hope is this will decrease the inflammation enough to reduce the pressure on the nerve endings and give me some relief.

What can I expect from the pred? With a course this short will I feel side effects? Today was 24 mgs, tapering down 4 mgs each day... despite popping Advil like tic-tacs (it hurt so much I didn't care what might happen!) no D for me - and now the Rx stuff says it will cause constipation...

I'm hoping "conservative treatment" will do the trick - pain management and maybe some PT...apparently 75% of the time that works - making surgery unnecessary...

Right now I have more weakness and numbness in that arm than pain - luckily it isn't my dominant arm...

It *is* always something, isn't it?

Mary

PS Glad to hear Tex is on the mend!

[Dee]

Hi Mary,
So sorry to hear about your neck... My Goodness! What brought that on??
I hope PT will take care of it.
Sounds like you have been prescribed the Medrol 6 day pack.
I took it when I had those nasty hives. And it worked to stop them.
I had no problems whatsoever when I took it, since it is only taken for a short time.
It should help with any inflammation that is going on.
Take Care & Keep Us Posted.

Love
Dee

[Polly]

Oh my, CA Mary!

Isn't that just the pits? Is this the first time your neck had given you problems?

I had the pred. short-term treatment pack after some dental surgery. I remember feeling incredibly energetic and jittery, having increased heartrate, and difficulty sleeping (I was on the internet all night - LOL). Luckily, it's shortterm, so any symptoms will be gone soon and you don't have to worry about those nasty long-term effects.

Usually with a crick in the neck, rest and inflammatories with eventual PT do the trick. But you need to be extra careful about following instructions, since weakness and numbness are indciations of a herniation. Let us know what the MRI shows. Hopefully you can avoid surgery.

So glad the pain is better - I know it is excruciating.

Love,

Polly

[starfire]

Yes, it does seem life always has something waiting to trip us up.

I'm really sorry you had such an experience. My daughter has had similar problems. They wouldn't even give her pain pills until after her MRI because they were afraid she was lying and just after the drugs. It was awful.

It eventually settled down for her with anti-inflamatories, etc. She didn't have PT. It could recur at any time though. She has 2 numb fingers. Her's is degenerative discs (2 I think) in her neck.

If you can come off the pred after a short term treatment you probably shouldn't have any problem I don't think.

Good Luck with all of it.

Love, Shirley

[JoAnn]

Hi Mary, I was on prednisone for 5 days last month for an mc flare and it stopped it in its tracks. I had no negative side effects and actually felt energetic and great on it. JoAnn

[barbaranoela]

wow Mary---so very sorry to hear what happened to U~~~~and U R right---gotta either be carried in or as U said *screaming* to get attended to--

I can feel that pain-that U R going thru due to my tumble down house stairs--which resulted in a compound fracture of L1 verterbre-----
I was in a body brace for 6 weeks---than it was either live with the pain or FIX it---naturally FIX-IT --and I went to see this doctor(back/bones/etc) and decided to FIX it---which was done by injecting CEMENT (which sealed the fracture) thus preventing any of the upper verterbre from collapsing and really causing me back troubles--

After having this procedure done---I spent one night in the hospital and WALKED out the next day--PAIN FREE!!

Of course I thought this Dr. a nut case when he described the rerpair job but I am ever so thankful for his Talents--

I also had an MRI done---cus Dr. wanted to make sure the rest of my spine was *OK*

I was on another pain meds--before the CEMENTING--and they caused me horrid nightmares---
When I was on Pred---for the *C*---it hyped me up like a jumping bean--but weaned off slowly was OK!!
Good luck with mending---

Barbara

[harvest_table]

Hi Mary,

Sorry to hear about your pain problems and hope that it will right itself and heal in a short time. MC and pain seem to go hand in hand and often it seems as though this disease targets or manifests itself (pain wise/ not so much after an injury) in the weakest links in our body. Those weakest links are constantly changing so pain is random and all over the map from head to toe.

I was a pred-virgin-began using it shortly after my DX with CC- about 7 years ago. Within a few days it abated most of my symptoms that had been dogging me a very long time- I felt like a million bucks and suffered no serious problems even though I took it much longer than you plan to.

Hope your feeling better soon.

Love,

Joanna