I just upped my dose to 20mg on Tuesday, and today I had an OMG moment. I had a period of about an hour that I felt almost normal. I picked up my baby, fed him cereal STANDING in the kitchen, and carried him to the couch...and he felt like a baby!!!! I still have terrible terrible mornings.....but I am finally seeing what the benifits of the Pred can feel like. Hallelua hallelua hallelua...my life is not over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jessica

Hi Jessica
I'm so glad the pred is working for you. And better yet, you could take care of your baby and enjoy that moment. That is so important to us moms to feel that we can care for our own.

I don't take pred but I do take mestinon. I remember the first time I took it within 24 hours I started to "get my life back". That is the way I explained it to my husband. It was such a great moment for me and I am soooooooo thankful I can tolerate it and that it continues to work for me.

Take care and enjoy that baby!
JJ

Hey honey!

I am sooooo happy for you! I love pred for that same reason! It is great stuff!


So happy to hear YOU feel better! REmember, REMISSION my be right around the corner for you!

Love,
Erin

Hi Jessica,

Yay, I'm so happy for you.
Yep pred can sure do some great things.
take care
Kate

first, response to pred. is an excellent sign. most people that respond to pred. will eventually go into remission.

second, pred. has a lot of short and long term side effects , and there are many things you can do to minimize them.

eating low salt diet (or even no salt diet), can signifcantly effect the way your face and legs will become swollen.

making sure you get enough calcium and vitamin D (and it is advisable to actually check the levels of vitamin D, because you may need much more then you think), can minimize the ill effects on your bones.

eating a well balanced diet, with out adding sugar, can minimize the risks of having steroid induced diabetes.

and excercising as much as you can (if you can of course).

and...

there is an excellent book, called- coping with prednison, which was written by eugene zuckerman (a flute player who became ill) and her sister, Julie Ingelfinger, a physician from mass. general.

I higly recomend this book to anyone taking pred.

and last but not least, once the good effects of pred. are well-established, it is very important to start tapering it down and at the same time use a steroid-sparing agent, which will help maintain what has been achieved with, hopefully, less side effects.

alice

Thats brilliant news that you have responded to prenisolone. I saw an improvement in about three days. I wasn't back to normal but I felt so much better.

I have read the book that Alice recommends, it is brilliant and I only wish that I had read it before I had started the stuff. As I ballooned by over 3 and half stone- I was enormous! I was just so hungry all the time and retained vast amounts of fluid.

Initially I didn't put on any weight but my face shape still changed and then all of a sudden the weight went on! Im off steroids now and have got my weight back down. But if I went on them again I would follow Alices advice to the letter. I would probably re- read the book again!

Love
Rach

Hey Jessica,

So glad the pred is working for you and you're feeling so much better! Enjoy taking care of that little one! Take care.

Hugs,
Pat

I am so glad you are doing better! I remember what it was like not being able to hold my baby.

Alice said it well and I wish I had that advice when I was on pred..LOL

I hope remission is soon on it's way as it was for me and you get to fully enjoy being a mom!

Jessica,

It's so great to hear that the prednisone has kicked in for you! I'm the same way. I tend to be pretty weak in the mornings, but as the day progresses, my strength improves, and the prednisone has definately made me stronger! It's so great when you get some strength back, isn't it? It's definately a 'halleluja' moment, for sure!

Alice,

Thanks so much for that info.! I'm definately going to check out that book and reduce my salt. It's so weird. Before prednisone, I barely ever used salt, but since starting, have craved it like mad! I've noticed that sometimes my face isn't as swollen as other times, so it must be based on how much salt I'm eating. Thanks for the info.!

Jessica, I'm glad you are finding some relief with Prednisone.

Because Prednisone is an antiprostaglandin, you may want to start taking (if you haven't already) either flax oil, fish oil (like cod liver oil) and/or nuts with omegas in them like pumpkin seeds. They contain "good" prostaglandins and will help with many things. One thing they do is to help keep the gel coating of the stomach nice and healthy.

Annie