Just... wow.

So I’ve been sick for a month now with some shit that that I picked up from some Chinese or Japanese tourists at a museum in Portland, take your pick, there were plenty of each nationality and none of them were wearing their classic cough masks while they coughed all over everything. Had that “this is going to be not fun” vibe. Two days later, I couldn’t breathe. Whatever it was went STRAIGHT for my lungs and bypassed everything else, very unusual for me.

A week later, and I was bad enough to go consult the walk-in clinic and explained I was coughing up green phlegm. Doc had a chest x-ray done, said “is not walking pneumonia,” gave me a scrip for cough medicine, Prednisone, a pat on the back and said "feel better." I told her “I’m 35 and I’ve had pneumonia 8 times in my life, three times walking pneumonia in the last six years,” and in her heavily Russian accented English replied, “you take cough syrup, sleep, drink lots fluid, feel better soon. Must rest!”

A week later, I was much worse, couldn't breathe, couldn't cough anything up and every inhale and exhale was a death rattle. So I went back. Indian doctor looks at my nose, ears, throat “oh, you have post nasal drip!” Ok, doc, wait for the Big Bang here.... puts his stethoscope on my back and says “big inhale!” I gave him my deepest, nastiest, most dramatic death rattle, which didn't take much effort beyond trying to breathe shallow for the preceding moments, and was immediately met with “oh, well, see, there’s your problem!” No shit, doc. I told you I couldn't breathe. “You need steroids, Prednisone is what you need.”

“So steroids is whatever, can you put me on some antibiotics, or do I have to be damn near dead first?” He looks at me knowingly, smiles and nods “yes, Z-pack for you, my friend. Four day course. You will feel better. This is the next step.” All the while doing the thing that is a rotary, weaving gesture that falls somewhere between a nod and a shake that only the true Indians can do. I’m not sure what this gesture is supposed to convey, but I’ve only ever met people from one part of the planet that do it. He did it.

So I took the Z-Pack and Prednisone and started to feel a bit better. Then the Z-Pack ran out and a few days later, I was tipping rapidly back the other way. A week of that, and I went back, and saw the same Indian doc, who had to be brought back up to speed on everything and seemed surprised that I was there once he read the chart. “Listen to my lungs, man. Really... listen.... “ To his credit, he did. He agreed I sounded pretty damn bad, possibly pneumonia bad, but as the clinic was closing and I was the last customer of the day, he didn't order any X-rays as there were no X-ray techs in the building.

“I am going to put you on a ten day course of Doxicycline and Prednisone. Stronger dose, you’ll feel better. Take the cough syrup.” Then I told him I wasn’t doing any more cough syrup and he asked why. “Because when I do, I feel pain in my liver the following morning” He cocked an eyebrow and asked “how do you know it’s your liver?” So I cocked an eyebrow back at him, pointed my my liver and said “because it’s my liver.” He did the indeterminate Indian head bobble gesture and said, “well, if it gets bad enough that you cannot sleep, you must take the cough medicine in order to get the sleep, or... (smile) you will not heal. Sleep is for healing. If you don’t sleep, you will not heal.” Pat on the back and a “good night,” and off I go.

I didn’t realize he upped my dosage of Prednisone until every last little thing for a week straight had me beyond pissed off, unable to sleep, unable to shit, and yet, eating like a wild goddamn animal. Ho-lee-fuk.

Got myself banned off another forum because I’m a natural sweetheart, but in enhanced mode on this stuff. Then nearly got myself banned off another a few days later. Made ALL sorts of friends at the grocery stores and Home Depot, and got beyond sideways with the wife and son on multiple occasions. Irritable, angry doesn't BEGIN to cover it. And staying up until 2-4AM every night isn't something I've done in about a decade. I’ve been going to sleep at about 10pm, latest for the last several years. Some little shit at school punched my kid in the face and told him not to tell the teachers and I wanted to run through a wall the next morning and choke the fucker to death, but managed to calmly convey to the school director that I wasn't going to tolerate such. Yesterday, we had a string of tree lights burn out and my wife sent me to Walmart to pick up another strand. I nearly went Orguss on this bitch that tried to run me over in the parking lot, but settled for screaming rage at her when she was too far away to bust glass, then nearly went Stickman on 5hr Energy when three generations with an empty cart each blocked me up against the side of the aisle I didn’t want to be on while middle generation mom played on her phone. “It’s the Prednisone, breathe and count, and get the fuck out.” Then on the way to the car, some bitch literally ran up behind me and into me with an armload or wrapping paper she apparently didn’t want to get rained on. I had to get my Dustin Hoffman on. “HEY! I’M WALKIN’ HERE!” she muttered something and scurried off.

Got in the car, took deep breaths and sent my wife a text: “Sending me to fucktard central in the silly season in the prime grips of the angry meds might not be a great idea.”

I have been on this crap for most of the last month and just took my “final” dose this morning. I’m still in raging dick mode. This is not me, man. I just can’t believe that anymore, you can’t go to the doctors and say “I can’t breathe, I’m really sick,” get a shot in the ass, a two week course of antibiotics, and be about your life. Instead, it’s a month-long saga of “here’s a pat on the head, here's some opiates to sleep and some drugs to make you a raging asshole for the next month. Have fun.” What the fuck kind of witch-doctor bullshit society have we painted ourself into a corner with?

And yes, I’m still, right now, raging on that shit. I can’t wait for it to wear off.

I had to take a cycle of it two weeks ago for some killer congestion. I was angry all the time, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat enough, and would randomly have hot flashes and sweat through my shirt.

I’m glad it’s over.

quote:

Originally posted by cooger:
I had to take a cycle of it two weeks ago for some killer congestion. I was angry all the time, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat enough, and would randomly have hot flashes and sweat through my shirt.

I’m glad it’s over.

Yep. We w
Had that crud going here for the past month. Prednisone has all those effects including making it difficult to pee but making you want to pee

My wife has been on it for a year, just started to wean off. It's hard backing off of it too, she gets terrible headaches when her dosage steps down.

If you've been on prednisone at a high dose for a month you should probably be weaned off, not just stop cold turkey. I don't really do much primary care so other docs here may have more qualified advice.

I was prescribed it for a two week cycle due to what they thought was an inflamed SI Joint.

I took it at night while at work, and I didn't have any problems staying awake but I did get the hot flashes.

Seems to affect people differently. Wife expected me to react like you after seeing others on it. I felt great on the stuff but like you had to go back for a stronger, longer course. I had a taper dose off.

quote:

Originally posted by cooger:
I had to take a cycle of it two weeks ago for some killer congestion. I was angry all the time, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat enough, and would randomly have hot flashes and sweat through my shirt.

I’m glad it’s over.

Yep, cold sweats and freezing my ass off in front of a space heater. Couldn't tell up from down.

quote:

Originally posted by Mustang-PaPa:
Hope you get to feeling better and if its of any help the steroids have the same effect on me.

Thanks, I'm pretty much there. No symptoms the last few days, just finally starting to cough up all the crud.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Prednisone has all those effects including making it difficult to pee but making you want to pee

Another fun fact I kinda glossed over. I looked up the list earlier and went down it and hit probably eighty percent of the side effects.

The capper for me tonight was heading to the local Fred Meyer to buy a machete to deal with some ivy vines that are just... way out of hand. I tried getting after them with a knife and some pruning shears, and trying to yank what I disconnected off the tree, and then I fell on my ass and whacked my elbow on the porch. "Nah, I'm buying the right tool for the job."

They got rid of their gun counter because Adam Lanza's mom was a shitty mother, and they moved their locked sporting goods cabinet to another location. Obviously, I wasn't going to find a machete in "Bedding." What I found was a middle-aged white lady wearing a black vest getting flirted with by a young black fella in a black vest, and made eye contact with both of them while I stared and waited. They continued their conversation and ignored me. So the Prednisone said "Tell them you want to buy a machete." So I said "Hey guys, I want to buy a machete." They both froze and just looked at me. White lady says "I'm sorry, we don't sell those."

"Yes, you do. They're in the locked sporting goods cabinet with other sharp, scary stuff that isn't where it used to be when you sold guns. You don't sell guns anymore, and the cabinet has moved."

"Did you look in gardening?"

"As a matter of fact, I did. There was all kinds of stuff there, but I need a machete. Will you help me?"

Young black guy realizes smooth talk time has ended, and turns on his heels and is gone. Old white lady is pissed she isn't getting flirted with anymore, and since my son is in the cart, has to maintain some sense of propriety, so she says "ok, let's go check sporting goods if you're sure they're there." I thank her for directing me to wherever they moved sporting goods to since that has also moved. We head over there, and halfway, she stops and asks "don't you have a grandfather?" I'm so stunned I ask her to repeat herself. She does. "Both of my grandfathers are dead. What's your question?" She then guffaws about how everyone has a grandfather and how all old guys have those, you knows, grim reaper things. I squint one eye the way I do when I'm encountering extreme stupid and say "You mean a scythe? Yeah, one of them had some, and that isn't what you use to cut ivy vines off trees and fencing." She turned and plodded on.

We reached the aisle she was intended on and she pointed at the pruning shears. "Yeah, those aren't machetes." So she ventures "have you tried pruning shears?" I respond "I sure did. Did you know the vines grow into the bark of the tree and you have to peel them out and pruning shears aren't great for that? I didn't until I just tried it and decided I wanted to come here and buy a machete."

"Ok, well, let's try sporting goods." About fucking time. We go two aisles over and there's the fucking cabinet. Inside it, several choices of machete. "Well, would you look at that! There's the machetes you don't sell!" She deflates a bit and proffers a snarky "well, do you know which one you want? I don't have a key to this cabinet."

"I'll know which one I want once you get someone with a key over here to open the cabinet and then you can be on your way to chat with your friend."

Then... then she discovers the cabinet has been unlocked, and slides it open. I say "Oh, willya look at that? I'll take the smallest one since I'm not Jason Vorhees. Have a nice evening, ma'am" and grabbed the shortest SOG in a package that I could grab, wanting nothing more than to get the fuck away from that woman. As I turned the corner, I heard a faint "have a good night."

Had a word with a manager about it. No patience for shitty customer service in general, but most especially on this stuff. The manager's eyes went wide as saucers when I told her "so your sports cabinet with all the slashy, stabby stuff was unlocked," and got bigger when I informed her that "some granny trying to get some from one of your young bucks got her Jimmies rustled at having to help me find the cabinet when I interrupted their soiree. I say I want to buy a machete and people here want to treat me like goddamn Freddy Kreuger. Is that what you're trying to encourage with your employees? If selling yard tools scares them, then I don't know what to think." I got an apology. I'm taking the damn thing back tomorrow and ordering one on Prime for $5 cheaper.

I lived on a high daily dose of Prednisone initial 400mg a day for a week, then tapered to 80mg a day for almost a year, then weaned 100% over 2 and a half months.

It was no picnic, but I will attest to the ability of it to help put a can of whoop-ass in side and make you the Hulk inside, while David Banner becomes a 16 year old girl on the outside.

I also have become "anti-biotic tolerant" (well, the bugs what get me, are given "free-fire ROE" against me due to over-prescribed in my youth), and that left me with an over reactive immune system that goes off scale if I get sick. (here comes the irony)I rarely get sick, but/and when I do, I get really bad sick, and my body goes apeshit crazy reacting and fighting it.

I think, that what happens is I kick the puny stuff to the side, no sniffle, no "low grade fevers" nothing for years, then "wham", the mega monster bug hits me and my body reacts to try and kill it, but brings the burn Danger Close and then it starts losing ground, and I always end up needing steroids and the double antibiotic treatments like Augmentin and other 2 punch antibiotics.

Last two times I have been sick were once in 2005 (the big one) and once in 2012 (the flu, and my brain did the "12 Monkeys" trip, went on a bug hunt and left my body behind for almost 4 days, that left me with Hotel California memories).

So, before you dismiss with wave of hand, the ability of the drugs used, remember, that badass you became on the outside when demanding implements of destruction without a second thought to the mayhem you could produce, that was the whiny 16 year old, and the "Hulk" was one the inside showing all the "Loki" germs and shits what a puny god looks like when in the Swiffer mode.

Hope you get all better and stay gooder longer!

Im on prednisone right now for a crohns flare and i hate the taste i always get on this shit.

Gotta love the narcotic cough syrup that helps a little but plugs your pooper lots.

quote:

plugs your pooper lots.

Frank hates that too.

- - -

Joking aside: get well soon, Smudge.

I wrote and deleted a long screed about Prednisone and its side effects. I'll just summarize by saying that the side-effects can last a lifetime if it's taken for too long a period of time, so please get it out of your system as soon as possible, and avoid it in the future.

Last year I had an allergic reaction to something in the yard. I made an appointment with a primary care physician for that afternoon. As it was a nice sunny July day I decided to ride my motorcycle. And as I was waiting on my first SS check a little money conservation was part of my decision also. Thirty miles one way.

So I go through the examination. Doctor says it was a allergic reaction and she will prescribe an injection and oral steroids. So off she goes, all the time my helmet is on the exam table next to me, in fact she remarks "Nice day for a ride."

Doctor leaves, nursey nurse comes in. I start to raise my left sleeve a bit, she says "Nope, it has to be in the hip."
O.K., so I get off the table, spin around a bit to allow her to stick me. Instantly I yelp in pain. She says "You are going to be very sore for the next three or four hours" to which I replied "I sure the hell wish you had said something before you stuck me." She replies "Is there a problem?"

I point to my helmet and said "I rode eight hundred pounds of Harley here and it's thirty miles home, you think there might be a problem?" She muttered something and said "sorry". GREAT, now I'm really stuffed and mounted.

I literally now limp so well that if they ever decided to remake "The Real McCoy's" I could try out for the role of Amos. I hobble across the parking lot,people are staring as I approach and am finally able to get up and on the bike and call my wife to let her know what is transpiring. She offers to come and get me but I don't want to leave the bike sit in that lot until that evening when I might be able to walk. I know virtually nobody that lives in that city anymore despite growing up there, they all have passed or moved away.

So one long and agonizing ride home during the beginnings of rush hour(s).

Prednisone seriously fucked me up the once and only time I took it. Never again. Not angry, borderline depression and but trip'n balls. completely forgot, where I was, what I was doing, and where I was going...while driving!

No thanks.

For me, the effects of Prednisone reminds me of The Pusher, by Steppenwolf. Taking it was pure hell for me.

My mother regularly takes bouts of Prednisone as part of treating flare-ups of her long-term condition.

When she's on it, she doesn't get mean or angry, it just deletes her brain-to-mouth filter. She says whatever comes to mind.

It's entertaining at times. Embarrassing at others.

Kinda like having a toddler around, who will say anything to anyone at any time, with zero consideration of the social consequences.

I can sympathize with the OP. I have experienced this before while on Prednisone, and it’s no where near my usual demeanor.

I have been fighting some kind of lung & airway infection for about a month now. Finally winning the battle.

Don't do meds if I can possibly avoid it as I am allergic to several of them.

Anyway, our daughter has done a good bit of research into my situation and came up with a suggested cause. Some kind of "germ" infection rather than virus. And the meds for viral infections do not, apparently, work for the germ based infections.

I am finally pretty much over the infection, but it has been a long, long experience.

don't want to EVER go thru this shit again.

Thanks for the well-wishes, and I’ll pass them on to all the other respondents having their own issues that need meds.

Sigmonkey, I can’t even comprehend that kind of dosage of this stuff. They’d have to put me in restraints or something. I was on a tiny fraction of that, and I don’t even want to imagine. I get your point, but my general sense is that we went from over-prescribing antibiotics to under-prescribing them. Pendulum and all that. I’m no doctor and the forum doctors haven’t replied to tell me I’m talking out my ass, so likely they rolled their eyes and moved on at best.

Weird potential side-effect or withdrawal symptom: night before last, I woke up at about 3AM with both knees hurting like they never have, and swollen. I’ve done damage to both here and there and they get weather sensitive and wonky, but never like this without a mitigating factor. The fall on my ass was on my ass, not my feet. I could hardly walk all day yesterday and had to finally take some Aleve in the evening (I don’t take pain meds unless I’m beyond functioning). Same thing again this morning around the same time. It was worse and so I took more Aleve and it was a few hours before I could get comfortable enough to actually sleep a bit more. Stabbing, shooting pains with throbbing and swelling in both knees while laying or sitting down. It was only while standing that and walking after the Aleve kicked in that things improved any.