As an MT, I have performed many CRPs and sed rates. Your CRP is normal and is a better measure than a sed rate. ESRs should just go away... there are too many factors that can affect the results. Old physicians... old ways

When I had my terrible toxic spider bite, many years ago upNorth on vacation, I did a pred taper that was similar. Only I started at 40mg (I thought 60 was too much), and I extended the taper to include 2.5mg after the 5mg for 3 days. That was the first steroid I used. The return of my arthritis pain after that taper was a shock and considerable.

Last summer I just took 10mg a day for 2 weeks and tapered off to 5 then 2.5 over the next two weeks. That worked very well. The shock of the taper was much less. This was for my back flare.

When you say too much, what kinds of symptoms? My doc just prescribed me 80mg for 3 days, then 60, 40, 20 for 2 days, 10 for 2 days. So 12 days total.

Not sure if I will follow orders and start with 80. Seems to be a really high dosage. And I don't understand why some people experience joint/muscle pain will on it since it's supposed to be anti-inflammatory.


BTW, did you guys split up your doses throughout the day or all at once?

It is best to take them all at once in the morning. This mimics the body's physiological secretion of cortisol.

I had a toxic spider bite... that had a possible infection. I didn't think taking so much with an infection was a good idea.

I had let it go for about a week... taken care of it well...but it hurt so much I had to soak it in the cold lake. Then a creeping geographic rash started moving down into my foot. This bite was on the outside ankle bone. The center of the bite started turning black. (this I found out is a necrotizing reaction to the venom.) My ankle hurt for a long time after that. In fact it is my touchy left ankle of the foot I had surgery on 50+ yrs ago...
It has never been quite the same since.

Doctors like to give big bolus doses of steroids... but I felt that it was my body, and I should have a say too. So I did it my way.

The doctor up there said these were common...his wife had one from the golf course! Mine showed up from sitting on the dock barefooted, watching shooting stars at night. I thought it was a mosquito bite at first...but the doctor said no...there were two punctures like a spider makes. He put me on Zithromax antibiotic, the Prednisone and strong dose of Atarax.

That trio did the trick.

Does Prednisone take a while to kick in? I popped 80mg this morning thinking all hell would break lose. I don't feel a thing.

A couple days...and you will know whether it will help. And it's not like all hell will break loose...the pain will just subside some if it's going to help.

Wow it actually made me feel worse so I quit after Day 3. The first day I noticed nothing. The 2nd day I noticed all my symptoms began to intensify. In fact that night it was the worst intensity since my symptoms began. Same on Day 3 so I decided that it wasn't helping and stopped. I don't think a 3 day course needs a taper.

I just don't see how an anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant could cause an increase in symptoms. Now i'm really confused. Prednisone usually helps people with autoimmune conditions since it weakens the immune system. Could this be an indication that mine is not autoimmune?

You are correct that you did NOT need to taper after just 3 days.

This certainly is odd that you had increased symptoms. I can understand if it didn't help, but to make it worse is strange. It may be that you just don't tolerate the medication/steroid...as in a type of allergic reaction.

I'm not sure I would eliminate the possible Dx of possible autoimmune cause. It could certainly mean that it is not, but the strange reaction to this may just be the medication, not anything to do with the root cause.

That is really strange.. It could be that you have
An infection somewhere.

I felt like a million bucks on the steroid..
At the end of that short taper I was back
In pain all over (arthritis pain).

That is odd. whenever I increase my steroids, I feel awesome (since it is short term), because it makes all of my aches and pains go away (nothing to do with neuropathy).

Maybe Mrs. D is right, and it allowed an existing infection to take the upper hand.

Were you really anxious about taking the steroids? Could the flare have been from possible stress/anxiety? I hope you don't take offense to that-I just have noticed that for me, personally, if I am anxious about something, my neuropathy will flare pretty badly.