Fatigue and Prednisone
Posted , 11 users are following.
Just coming up on 3 years of dealing with PMR and have a question regarding fatigue. I probably read about it before but can't find it.
I'm at 6.5 mg of Pred, just dropping to 6. The last 6 months have gone reasonably well but my work load at age 64 is minimal in the winter, so that makes it easier to keep things in balance. Now that spring is here the work load is increasing but I've made a point to not dive in to things. I picked up a cold 3 weeks ago and fatigue has gradually increased until it's relentless now and it's a struggle to do almost anything. The cold is gone but the fatigue remains. My question - is there any value to increasing the prednisone dose to knock down the fatigue? It seems to me that the answer is no but am not sure. I'd gladly move the dose up if I felt it'd yield results.
I'm not worried about prednisone and appreciate all it accomplishes. Sure, I'd like to someday be off it but the first goal is to continue functioning well and feeling as close to the new "normal" as I can.
0 likes, 5 replies
EileenH TheRaven
Posted
Yes, I imagine increasing the pred dose would probably manage the fatigue better, The conundrum is that you have to be at a too low level of pred to prod the adrenal function into life. The infection will have caused the majority of the problem now - your body requires more cortisol to deal with such stress. So one option is to go up a bit now to get back to feeling decent until you recover fully from the infection - and then try reducing in tiny steps again.
It's a balance - being able to function and prodding the adrenal glands into life. I'd add pred to be able to function. But then - that is me, no compromise!
jillian92038 EileenH
Posted
Please listen to Eileen- her advice is very sound. My experience has been that when I hit this level of fatique it is too late and I am in a flare. Accompanied by the fact that my brain stops working and the awful fog descends!!!
I am afraid you will need to go up on meds to get back in control then slowly slowly slowly come back down.
good luck
Anhaga TheRaven
Posted
We are all different and my personal feeling is one tries to deal with the fatigue another way. And this is why. When I got to the level the adrenals were supposed to kick in I did experience fatigue, but it was sporadic and seemed to be getting better. My taper had been fairly uneventful. I got down to 1.5 and it was attempting to go to 1 that I had a flare. A genuine flare which meant I went up to 7 again, and dropped quite quickly I think to 4, then a slower taper to 2.5 and after a very long time to 2. I have never been able to get back to 1.5 again, and I have been suffering from fatigue ever since. I think the increase in dosage for the flare was bad for my adrenals and I am still hoping they recover. It's been nearly two years, half my time on pred. So I would not increase the dose to deal with fatigue, only for a genuine flare of PMR. But that's just me. You may not suffer the same problem. You are younger than I am, so that could help you. Just something else for you to consider.
I do have a bit of trouble keeping my iron up, too. So it may be worth a trip to the doctor so they can run some tests and make sure there's nothing else going on.
TheRaven Anhaga
Posted
Thanks everyone for the advise and thoughts.I think I'll push the pred dose up for 2-3 days and see how I react. Worth a try anyway!
garine1990 TheRaven
Posted
We all react differently so I can't tell you what to do but I can tell you what I've done. I had a very hard time reducing the Pred from 6 mg but as soon as I started acupuncture things leveled off and I was able to successfully go to 5.5 mg. Now, I'm trying to slowly reduce from 5 mg to 4.5 mg but I had the fatigue too. Around 6 pm I would get drop dead tired. The first trip to acupuncturist took care of the fatigue and it's helping me reduce again. It might work for you too and it doesn't have any side effects.