Prednisone the wonder drug!

[bnwitt]

Man, when it rains it pours.  Thursday night I had a major asthma attack.  First one I've had in 5 years.  Ended up in the ER with so many flu victims I couldn't see a doctor after almost 3 hours.  Went home and suffered on for two more days until the ER doctor I never saw called me at home to see how I was doing.  When I told him lousy he said get back in here on Sunday.  I did and finally I can breathe again.  Prednisone!!  I highly recommend it for respiratory distress.  So after 6 hours of sleep and only 12 ounces of food in 4 days, I had a half a can of chicken noodle soup and I hope to sleep like a baby tonight.  Thank God for medical doctors and nurses.  I love all of them out there.  Man what they go through in some shifts.  I am feeling lucky tonight.

[LooseChange]

Glad you're feeling better... It was the chicken soup that did it.

[jjasilli]

I'm on prednizone now due to repeated bouts of bronchitis.  It works but makes me jittery.  I'm also on a narcotic cough suppressant.  So I'm jittery and drowsy at the ame time.  Now, if I could only find my soldering iron. . .

[PRR]

Strong stuff. Read all the fine print and talk to your doctor or pharmacist.

[bnwitt]

PRR,
No doubt strong stuff.  It increases your appetite and it makes you stay awake so you have to take it early in the morning.  They gave me the first dose at 1 pm on Sunday and the good nights rest I had hoped for that night  didn't materialize.  Tonight I hope it will be different as I took it at 6am.  I hate drugs with a a passion but I was having to hit my ventolin inhaler so much I wanted to stop that and I couldn't sleep as I couldn't catch my breath.  At that stage I had to take drastic action.  Man I'm glad I did.  I am feeling better every day.  I took 5 today, I'll take 5 tomorrow then 2 days each of 4, 3 2, and 1 a day.  Then its done.  I hope I can stop taking everything but flonase then.  It is really true, if you have your health, you have everything.  Without it, you're sunk.  Thanks for the good wishes guys.  LC, it really was good chicken soup but not that good.    I'm going to make this a great 2010 if it chaps the govenator.

[jjasilli]

Strong stuff. Read all the fine print and talk to your doctor or pharmacist.

Thanks for the concern.  These are normal reactions; and my dosage goes down tomorroww. 

[GroundhogKen]

Steroid related question:

Anybody here ever have a cortisone injection for tennis elbow or tendonitis or any other such thing?  Did it help?



Ken

[PRR]

Cortisone usually takes out pain and inflamation. Yes, it works. And it helps Body heal some things.

The question is more about long-term balance. If you need to de-pain so you can relax, exercise, and get strong again, sure. If you use it to mask pain so you can hurt yourself some more, you will be sorry.

[GroundhogKen]

I developed medial epicondylitis (golfer's elbow) a few years ago--probably because of some repetitive motion thing (ie -- guitar picking).

I gave it lots of rest and had a brief round of physical therapy.  That all got me past the need for ibuprofen.

But I've continued to have bouts of aches and tingles.  I've just wondered if cortisone yould make the rest of that go away.

I've learned my lesson about stretching and being careful.

[PRR]

Thanks. You may have diagnosed my tennis elbow. Not the same, but similar.

Many treatments, though placebo seems to work as well as most.

Between ibuprofen and steroids (cortisone), long-term, Ibuprofen may have fewer strange side-effects. And OTC pills are cheaper than injections. AFAICT, if you aren't 18 any more, and the cause was repetitive (not trauma), neither condition is going to "go away", you just manage it.

[PRR]

apologies to Non Sequitor http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/

[Fresh_Start]

I had two injections of cortisone in the top of my foot for a Morton's neuroma (inflammation of a nerve junction).  The first doc failed to mention that a couple hours after the injection it would feel like someone was driving a railroad spike through my foot.  It did get rid of the problem... for about 6 months.  Then I had to get the second shot and get a small pad put in every right-hand shoe.  That actually fixed it for good.  That's the difference between a foot surgeon and a good podiatrist (sp?).

Prednisone is not a drug to take lightly.  I've had those declining doses a couple of times for inflammations in my back.  The last time a doc recommended it, I said "NO!"  I get really cranky & mean toward the end of the 5-6 day cycle.

AFAIK small doses of sterioids can be helpful in temporarily reducing inflammation.  Larger doses actually destroy tissue.

bnwitt - glad you found a good doc willing to follow up, even if a couple of days later.  Get well!

Cheers,

Chip

[PRR]

There seems to be a new-for-2009 exercise for Tennis Elbow which is said to be very effective, and another for Golfer's Elbow.

Tennis (pain outside) http://info.thera-bandacademy.com/flexbarelbow
Golfer (pain inside) http://info.thera-bandacademy.com/flexbarelbowmedial

The suggested prop is $3 worth of plastic and sells for $10-$20. At the moment I'm trying with 3 days of newspaper rolled-up, and I think I'm going to blow the bucks (unless I find some heavy radiator hose in the garage).

[billcreller]

Cortisone really works when it's needed.  I've used the Medrol (SP) dose pack a few times with good results.  Only had a cortisone shot once, when I couldn't stand up.  All this was lower back problems.
 Modern drugs do work.

Hope you are doing better Barry

[bnwitt]

Well I finally got my appointment with the pulmonary specialist.  It was very enlightening.  I found out that my blood pressure medicine (lisonop/HCTZ) is responsible for the difficulty swallowing I've been having as it causes inflamation in the back of one's throat.  Damned cheap generic!  Doc even said it can do permenant damage.

I also found out that a pulmonary specialist can hear lung weezing when other general practiioners can't.  It's amazing.  When I had this attack back in 2005 the emergency room attendant even asked me if I "..had problems at home?"  That was of course when all of his tests and his available skill set couldn't identify a cause for my respiratory distress.  I remember telling my wife, "this jackass thinks it's all in my head!"  It was a sort of similar event this time.  Xray was clear, ECG was clear yada yada.

Finally I get a specialist who knows his stuff.  So, I'm on a major daily dose of Advair and a new blood pressure med and in thirty days we'll see if we need to scope my lungs.  He said there could be an infection, mold growth who knows in there.  The moral of this story gang is believe your body when it speaks to you.  Don't let some medical "professional" tell you there's nothing wrong when you know there is.  I mean at one point I was actually questioning my own sanity if you can believe that.  Also, PPO not HMO.  You could die trying to get a referral.  The human body is a complex machine with many complicated sub systems.  Lose any one major subsytem and its lights out.  I now only go to the GP for the flu.  Everything else gets a specialist.  I am going to get better if it kills me.  I just wish PRR was a medical genius instead of an electronics genius.  I could save some dough.