Feeling horrible after been on the steroid prednisone

I was only taking them fir 5 days. Only a couple of times a year mostly. i am ok 4 days after I finish the course. Just wobbly for a couple of days when I finish taking them. I am very energetic during the time I am on them. I could climb Snowdon no bother, at least thats how it feels. I feel trembly & weirs for a few days after the course. I soon settle back to my normal self.

Morven.

i going thru it now 20 mg 7 days 3x a day been off for 4 days now any updates even they older posts would be helpful for people going thru it now thank you

Hello all. My story is so absurd that I would have trouble believing it if I hadn't gone through the experience myself.

17 months ago I had a minor allergic reaction on my arm and so I received a 100mg intravenous injection of hydrocortisone. While not prednisone, it's in the same cateogory of corticosteroids so they share the same effects. Immediately after the injection I suddenly felt dizzy with pain shooting down my leg. I left the hospital in a daze.

As the hours went by I started feeling more unwell and so I decided to go stay at a hotel near the hospital in case my condition worsened. I went for a little stroll to nearby shop for some drinks and food in the hopes that I would feel better. As I was walking back I started feeling weaker and extremely hot like my body couldn't control its own temperature. I realized my body was producing no sweat, and this was in the middle of a hot summer in Europe with no air-conditioning. When I got back to the hotel I collapsed in the lobby. My heart was racing and I was panting, feeling like I couldn't get enough air in my lungs. An ambulance came and after a few hours with fluid replacement in the air-conditioned emergency room I started to feel better.

I didn't sleep at all that night at the hotel but managed to make it through by rinsing my body in cold water in the shower a few times per hour, because it felt like my body still couldn't control its own temperature and I was overheating. The next morning was when things started getting really bad. I started having more trouble breathing, feeling weak and like my body was completely dried out and still couldn't control my temperature. I also lost control of my urinary flow and I kept feeling fainter like I was going to lose consciousness. It kept getting worse to the point I literally felt like I was fighting for my life and I believe the multiple fluid replacement treatments I received at different hospitals that day saved my life, which I had to beg and plead for because no doctor believed a cortisone injection could cause these symptoms. Looking back now I believe I had the symptoms of hypovolemic shock, which is caused by massive fluid loss.

These were just preliminary effects, because the next morning is when the drug was fully released in my body. It started with a rapid heartbeat and pressure in my chest. Then all the muscles in my body started swelling, similar to the feeling when you get a pump in the gym. I suddenly felt this adrenaline I had never felt before. The worst side effect though is that something started happening to my bones. I can only describe it as a clenching feeling, similar to when you get your braces tightened, but in all my bones from head to toe. I could literally feel my teeth shifting position and in my panic I immediately took a taxi to the hospital. Once I got there however the reaction was starting to go down, and I didn't feel like being treated like a crazy person again. When I got home and looked in the mirror I didn't recognize myself because my face had swelled up, round and red.

The next few months were absolute insanity. I had too many side effects to list but the main ones were pressure and pain in my chest, fast heartbeat, difficulty breathing, adrenaline, muscle weakness, insomnia, bloating, pain in my brain, and of course the horrible tightening feeling in my bones. The adrenaline was so extreme that all I could do was pace back and forth for many hours each day. All the doctors treated me like I was crazy because the drug supposedly "left my body after 12 hours". The only thing on my mind was trying to survive each day in the hopes that the drug would out of my body the next. I should also mention that the side effects weren't constant, it's like it was stored in my body and would get released in waves at random times throughout the day.

The good news is that all the side effects did gradually weaken over time, and now that I'm at 17 months it isn't even 5% as strong as it was in the first month. The first doctor to take me seriously was an osteopath who did two DEXA scans of my spine, ten months apart, and was shocked that I had lost nearly 20% bone mass in that time. He can't explain it and believes the injection may have triggered something indirectly, but I know the truth. It's a direct side effect of the drug which is somehow still active in my body to this day. I can still walk however and haven't broken anything, which I credit to the large amount of natural supplements I started taking.

I believe at this rate it might take another year for the side effects to go away completely. If you're having a bad reaction I recommend you to eat healthy and make sure you're getting the necessary micronutrients, drink lots of water, and do light exercise once you feel strong enough. Regardless of how long it takes, the only certainty is that the side effects will get weaker as time goes by.