60mg of Pred? Prednisolone dependency? Looking for peoples experiences and opinions

Looking for peoples opinions and experiences to help give me some hope/optimism and stop me stressing out!

how long do you have to be on prednisolone to become steroid dependent?

I was originally put on 30mg a few months ago for 2 weeks, then to follow a 5mg weekly taper. It took about 4/5 weeks to see any improvement in the first place! I think it was only when I got to 10mg that I began to improve. - which is funny, as a lot of people have told me you should see improvements on Pred straight away - but my consultant told me to 'give it time' - so I gave it nearly the whole course and it seemed to put me in remission towards the end of it!

Unfortunately, i didn't get put on a mesalazine right until the end of my steroid course - I started talking mesalazine as my maintance drug literally on the last week of my prednisolone course - which again seemed concerning to me as I see a lot of people say you need to be Mesalazine for at least a few weeks for your body to adapt.

1 week being off the steroids and being on mesalazine for about 1 week, my symptoms came back all of a sudden. Bleeding came back, urgency, diarrhea, the whole lot. I actually felt worse than my first flare by the second week. So I was admitted to hospital and put on IV steroids for 5 days which eventually got things under control. I got moved onto 40mg of prednisolone (with a weekly 5mg taper) when I was discharged and although things are still so much better, things have got a bit looser and i've noticed blood again.

So I saw my GP yesterday and he's bumped me up to 60mg of prednisolone for a week, followed by 50mg next week, then back to 40mg, tapering at 5mg like the original hospital discharge plan. Only putting us a few weeks behind schedule to the original plan.

This has all really confused me, as my first original consultant seemed to think it could take weeks of tapering for the prednisolone to even start doing its job, but some other doctors seem to think you should see results instantly?

I wanted to talk to someone about the situation so i spoke to my old original IBD nurse (that i used before I changed care and was admitted to hospital different to the original one i saw the consultant at) and she told me over the phone, without looking at my discharge information and without knowing about ANYTHING to do with my recent hospital stay that she thinks im 'definitely steroid dependent' because i've been on 2 high dose courses in the space of a year. I thought, hang on a second, none of the other consultants have mentioned this to me, nor has my GP, if they thought I was depdendent

a) they surely wouldn't be trying this as an option?

b) they would have mentioned it to me too?

also - my first course (which was just a few months ago) was 30mg which isn't a particuarly high dose from what i've heard? AND i actually improved last time WHILE i was tapering? AND i never really was on the mesalazine properly when I tapered off the steroids last time.

she's really stressed me out as I don't think she's able to diagnose me as being steroid dependent without any of my information of my recent hospital admission - she just made me feel hopeless and scared that now i've been bumped up to 60mg, i'm never going to be able to get off them?! Surely my GP would never have put me up to this dose for the week if he was concerned about that.

I shouldn't have really rang her, as she is not as up to date on the situation as the new consultant I saw in hospital/my GP. But I just wanted a second opinion but she ended up scaring me instead!

Sorry if this seems very confusing and erratic, I feel extremely stressed and lost for hope. Really hoping and praying that while being on mesalazine longer this time and with a stronger steroid taper, i'll be able to come off it and stay in remission this time.

Would love to just hear peoples opinions on the whole situation.

Thanks.

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