i went to the GP today about chest pain and runny nose (see other post for details) and have been given a cocktail of drugs, amongst them my first ever course of Pred.
EIGHT tablets a day??? all in the morning???? why so many pills? i have to take them along with my antibiotics which is crazy in my opinion. never realized it was that many pills and what it is like to be taking all these pills! i feel for all of you that have to be on these on a regular basis!
as a newbie, any advice or tips and are there any side effects you have experienced? im on 5mg , 8 a day, for 5 days.
main side effect = hunger. utter insatiable hunger. although that only seems to be when i'm on 7 or more days!!
did he give you the nice red ones or the icky white ones?
havent opened them yet but i THINK i can see a pink tinge? so im hoping they are red from the sound of your post
The logic is there the 5mg tablets are like £1.03 a box where as 25mg tablets are £15 a box.... usually they give the horrible white ones unless ask for the red ones again money!
Most of the time the long term steriods are only 2 tablets a day but when I go up to 40mg it will have to be cut slowely! So avoid them when poosible.
The worst side effects are hunger, when first spent allot of time on steriods higer doses (now on maintinece dont get so many) I put on about 6 stone in a month and I find I got insomina despite being so tired. So have will power with eating!!!
Hunger and insomnia. And if you have the icky white ones, a horrible taste and feeling sick. Have fun.
I'd make sure you have them after breakfast - and have a good breakfast too so your stomach's well lined. And swallow them with lots of water so they don't get stuck, especially if the white ones.
I've been on Pred years so can't really remember if I got side-effects with a short course; you may be fine (but if you are, it's still totally permissable to use it as an excuse to stuff yourself with chocolate )
when i take steroids i have to have a reducing dose to try and prevent side effects which means im often on them for ages and ages-often start with the eight tablets though. the white tablets are fowl and i would recommend that you have a huge drink of water after each one and something to suck on after as the taste lingers for ages, either that or beg the doc for the red coated tablets. lots of people, me included have a massive rise in hunger. good luck and hopefully you wont need to be on them for long x
Been on them 90 days and off them tomorrow Woohoo !!!
LOL. I've had to do that before when the pharmacy didn't have the higher strength tablets. I always found it amusing. I also always get side effects even on a short course. So if you feel like you're going crazy....it's not you it's the drug. They have you take it all in the a.m. because you're less likely to have insomnia that way (although that never helped me too much). I find eating protein helps because it keeps me fuller longer.
Bee
I get nice red ones
8 of 5mg for 7 days, then half dose for another 7 days.
My doc said take the white ones with milk. Slightly less yucky.
When I got my first lot, didnt know until someone on here pointed out all eight had to be taken all at once in the morning. I was taking them gradually through the day and somehow this affected my eyesight in a big way. Couldnt drive for about five weeks. Now I take them properly of a morning, eyesight is unaffected.
I've had a recent very bad experience with pred-although i imagine it is fairly uncommon so dont want to worry anyone unduly I was prescribed them last monday - been on them a few times before with no probs. Over the course of the week, i couldn't sleep and totally lost my apetite-which i could deal with but at the weekend i had some kind of breakdown, cried hysterically for about 15 hours, felt really disorientated, paranoid, depressed and confused, and having very bad negative thoughts. I sat through this thinking i was going mental and then it suddenly dawned on me that maybe it was the tablets, ended up speaking to NHS direct and then referred to out of hours who told me to stop taking them and to get someone to look after me..which i did. Feeling much better now, although still quite weak and dizzy but it was very scary and i would say if you have any psychological side effects do seek help because i did not feel safe at all.
HI northern_star, that basically what Singulair did to me. Really scary and did nowt for the asthma. Glad you retained a mite of common sense and thought ""hey could be the tablets?
Yeah its just a shame it toook 24 hours for my brain to make the connection, i was just so confused-and really frightened to talk to anyone or ask for help. Sorted out my asthma which is great, tho i'm now back to wheezing and not sure what my options are going to be next.
16 Morning pills
3 Mid afternoon (only while I have this infection)
7 Evening pills.
26 Total, plus various amounts of nebulisers, inhalers and other things, it can get demanding at times
this has been my worst experience with asthma so far. on pred, antibiotics, allergy pills and allergy nose spray, serevent, brown inhaler and of course our friend ventolin. i have never been this bad before and a little scared to be honest. been on pred since yesterday ad noticed an immediate effect on the coughing which has dissapeared. however the chest pain is still there- how long should it take for it to get better? xx
can't take the red ones so take the horrid white ones, had got down to 3 x 5mg ones but back up to 40mg for 5 days then reduce...it is a never ending merry-go-round! I take the pred with sprite or 7up or some such fizzy pop...it is the only way I can get them down. Has anyone had sando K now that is foul. I am on sando k and sando phos at the moment - swapping to slo k as soon as possible.
Lizzie- glad to hear that the coughing is getting better. I find that it takes about 36 hours to see a big improvement. I am afraid the pain from the coughing tends to last quite a bit longer I am afraid so keep popping the paracetamol.
Honey is sando K the digusting green liquid, that the nurses warn you will taste horrible?
The liquid I have is clear - comes from fizzy tablets but yes it is the stuff that nurses warn of. It is so disgusting I bribe myself with chocolate fingers - gulp it down get a chocolate finger as reward.
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