Help !! Ive made a mistake

Hi Mrs G

I usually just read the posts and don't join in, so you probably won't remember me. I've had PMR for 4 years, started on 40mg, and am currently on 3.5mg. A couple of months ago when I was on 4mg, I took 4 x5mg, instead of 4x 1mg, and I think I must have done it for 3 days. I hadn't realised that I had been given some 5mg that were non-enteric and looked just like the 1mg.

I too had wondered why I was bouncing all over the place.

Anyway, I decided to revert to the 4mg dose, and have a quiet few days while keeping my fingers heavily crossed. It worked, and I was fine (although a bit bad tempered on the first two days - dropping a dose always makes me like that; I just warn everyone around me).

I had occasionally had pred diagnosed in the past when I had had a chest infection, and remembered being on 5 days of 30mg. The Dr had assured me then that I wouldn't get withdrawal symptoms after such a short time, so I thought the same principle would apply.

Taught me to read the labels more carefully, though!

Good luck

Margaret

Thanks for that Margaret

I have my fingers crossed as well !! I had been doing really well lately and you start to think one day I wont have to take steroids !!!!!

When my Doctor suggested trying non enteric coated 5mg I was happy to give it a go as after she showed me the difference in costs I thought it is more money in the NHS for other things but I hadnt forseen this problems

The previos 5mg I had had were very square rounds( if you know what I mean ) !! and I dont think it would have happened

Im on 5mg today and hoping for a better nights sleep tonight !!

Hope you will be steroid free soon as well

Best wishes Mrs G

Hallo Mrs. G. Not quite you experience but near enough. In April 2008 I had a very bad reaction to either Alendronic Acid or penicillin or a combination. Had to go to hospital and was source of much interest. Declined ( politely, I hope ) to be admitted as I had animals and greenhouses that needed me! You will understand.

Consultant said to take 20mgs Pred for a week. I was on 8 at the time and asked for assurance all would be ok. Answer was yes and it was. No problems. Resumed 8 after the week was up and continued with planned reduction.

I am sure the party did you good. Worth a night's sleep. Best wishes BettyE

Hi Mrs G. Oooops! I don't think it'll make much impression on your progress but it does make the tummy go over when you realize that you've made a mistake doesn't it. I thought I'd got muddled the other day using up my non-enteric 5mgs (saving the luscious enterics for my hols - sad aren't I?) because they are so similar to the 1mg's. Mine are both round and its only when you have the two side by side to compare that you can tell the difference. I had a mini-panic and then got sensible remembering my friend (on chemo) and my Mum when she was alive who took huge doses at times. My Grandson has to triple even quadruple dose his steroids when he has a mishap (frequently happens as he's 14 years old and has a penchant for BMX bike and skateboards!) and he's fine. I bet you were the liveliest one at the dinner table :lol: I suggest you invest in a pill dispenser and put your week's tablets in at the beginning of each week. Its the only way I can get it right. I've just sat and made up 14 days tablets ready for my hols and got my dearly beloved to check them as I'm a bit 'light headed' today :? Take care everyone.

Lizzie Ellen

Hello Mrs G

Just to reassure you, when people on steroids are facing a general anaesthetic for surgery, including tooth extraction, it is usual for the steroids to be increased for a day or two in order for the body to cope with the additional stress (the adrenal glands having been compromised by the long-term steroids).

I have always taken 5 and 2.5 coated tablets which are coloured so have not been put at risk of overdosing!!! :?I'm sure I could easily have fallen into the same trap as you if I had been taking all uncoated tablets in all their different sizes. It's been difficult enough now on the very low dose 1mg tablets just to remember which dose is for which day, when for instance on 2/2/2/1.5/2/2/1.5/2/1.5 etc etc but I've been helped by a chart my husband started when doing this painfully slow reduction below 5mgs.

So, worry not, and hopefully you are now feeling less hyper :roll: and will sleep well tonight.

Hope this is helpful.

Very best wishes

MrsO

Thank you all

I feel Ok today its just so annoying when you cant do anything about it If I knew I hadnt just started a new pack of 5mg I wouldnt have noticed

As things had been going so well of late I dont want any more set backs

Until I saw my tablets this morning I had definately put my sleepless night down to the flowing champagne !!

I shall have to sort my pills out weekly as you do Lizzie Ellen Have a great holiday

Best wishes

Mrs G

Hi there everyone

Mrs G when i saw your post I thought I will have to get a weekly pill box for my self and that will ensure i do not make a mistake.Hope you are ok now Mrs G

Morning all

I slept better lasy night but woke up very early

I am also feeling a bit too energetic and have now probably done too much alreadty today !! I have still to go to my muscle rehabilitation class , shopping , Dentist 10 miles away and then later my horses so tomorrow will have to be rest day !!

Thanks for all your support

Best wishes

Mrs G

Hi - sorry I've been offline for the last few days!

Everyone is quite right - a single dose like that won't do any harm at all nor will missing one morning as Rick did recently. If you did it several times you might need to not go straight back to the lower dose but take an intermediate dose, if you see what I mean, but only if you felt any effects. As you know I use alternate day dosing and take 17.5mg every other day so that is very similar to what you did and I do it on a permanent basis. There is just a really good anti-inflammatory effect for about 48 hours and then you are back to normal!

If you miss a dose you just wait until the next day if you realise too late and then take a single dose - not a double one. If you realise early-ish in the day and you take a low dose you could take it late but you might not sleep as well! I suggested to Rick he use his mobile phone and set the alarm for the same time every day which would make him think about it. Doesn't help with the selection of tablets all looking the same though!

cheers all,

EileenH

Thanks Eileen

Feel a bit more normal this morning and slept a lot better last night By 8.30 yesterday morning I had washed all my kitchen windows, cleaned the kitchen windows , washed all the wall tiles and cleaned up the paint splatters ( my husband had been decorating ) !!!! That was before I started my day !!

I never thought of not taking Sundays tablets !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shock I think At least now I realise ( or still hope) it wont upset my reduction plan

I still havent tried alternate day therapyyet I hate to rock the boat when things appear to be going OK I hope to be on 4mg by the end of this week but have a much more open mind as to how long this will take I was convinced at first it would be like my first bout and PMR would now have just been a distant memory ( I wish )

Glad you had a good meet up with Mrs K

Best wishes

Mrs G

Mornin' all (albeit a freezing fog one!)

I felt the same, Mrs G, about not wanting to rock the boat and take on alternate day therapy at a time when things seemd to be going so well with my Ragnar-type slow tapering regime.

Thought I might try having my first day at 0.5mg yesterday but something in my head said \"No, not today\".........took hubbie out for a 75th birthday meal last night (he'd already had a party meal out with several friends and our son on Friday). I was driving home in freezing fog with the car thermometer registering 1 degree and something didn't feel right; pulled into a garage....completely flat tyre which hubbie (in his best bib & tucker!) tried to pump up to no avail. I started uncontrollably shaking like a leaf :shock: which felt to me to be a complete over-reaction to a flat tyre :cry:Thought it could obviously be the cold but also wondered if it was a stress reaction (adrenals not 100% maybe). Breakdown service said they would be 45 minutes so went into the garage where it was a little warmer, had a cup of tea and stopped shaking. When home, got into bed with 2 :roll: hot water bottles and donned bedsocks on my freezing feet.

Felt so sorry for poor hubbie having such an end to his 75th birthday but, of course, far worse things can happen although Heaven know why my body reacted as it did!

May leave the 0.5mg for another couple of days!!!! Off to get new (probably most expensive!) tyre now .

MrsO

Oh dear Mrs. O. I cast my mind back to pre-prednisolone times and I reacted just like you, shaking etc. when we had a blow-out on the M3. Rain coming down in stair rods, lorries hurtling past at 80mph and just imagining what might have been. I'm wondering if its that rather than the adrenal stress? Who knows, but if it was me I'd have another few 'comfy days' before attempting the 0.5mg drop (when will someone put a half symbol on the keyboard I wonder :? ). Be prepared for another sessions of shaking etc. when you find out the price of a new tyre Freezing cold here in Basingstoke. Heat on full blast and thinking treacle pudding for afters tonight! Keep well.

Lizzie Ellen

Mrs.O, do hope you have warmed up a bit now. It has been a beautiful day here ( to look at ) but very cold and not the day for sitting in a cold garage so can just imagine what it must have been like last night.

Shock can have some very dramatic effects and I should think that would account for at least some of the horrible shakes. Someone ran into the back of us once and next morning I couldn't raise my head from pillow. Not whiplash, I was told by doc. Shock. And I didn't have PMR in those days so I reckon you were entitled to shake.

Good luck with the reduction. I'm full of envy.

Hope you are feeling better now Mrs O

I definately dont react in the same way to stress nowadays I was one of the very \"capable ones \" but now tend not to cope so well Having realised this I am now managing this better Im hoping when Im off steroids that I will be back to normal

How great for you to be down to (well nearly) 0.5 !!

Take care of yourself for a few days as this horrible cold weather has come as a bit of a shock as we often dont even get frosts here till after Christmas and it was cold and foggy all day here

Best wishes

Mrs G

Hello all....

.....and special thanks to Lizzie Ellen, Betty and Mrs G for such kind responses to my woeful tale! The car is now running smoothly again but can't say the same for my Bank balance - no, Lizzie Ellen, I didn't get a repeat of the shakes when I took the tyre to the repair shop yesterday......just had to be picked up off the floor when one new tyre somehow turned into two and the bill came to £447! :shock: The mechanic said \"Don't shoot the messenger\" and offered a special discount for two. Felt like shooting my husband though later when he commented that I should look out for nails!!! :roll:

MrsO