adrenal suppression

Does anyone know at what point you can have adrenal suppression. My son was on alternate day pred (10mg) from Jan to Sep last year. He then had 3 doses of 80mg Triamcinolone injections from Sep to Dec with three 5 day courses of 40mg pred as well. Since he stoppped the injections he has had a further 3 short courses (5 - 7 days) of 40mg pred in 1 month, has not grown in the last 5 months and has cushingoid features.

Over the past year he has had 4 episodes of severe headache followed by dizziness and vomitting and have been told by the gp each time it's a virus but no one else in my family catches it and it has not been a problem at school. Was wondering if this might be anything to do with the steroids? The pharmacist mentioned something about these symptoms when he handed over a steroid card.

Any help appreciated.

[yaf_user681_26677]

Hi Koolkat

My daughter Emily is about to have a synacthen test to find out if she is adrenally suppressed. Like your son, she was pretty much pred dependant for a long while. The test involves the taking of blood at various intervals after being given the synacthen.

Although blood tests aren't nice for kids, maybe you could discuss this with the docs/asthma nurse as a possibility. I know how worrying this is.

Em has grown very little and very cushingoid at the mo.......which at nearly 13 she absolutely hates. I was also advised to take her to GP if she had an illness or injury i was worried about.

Let them know you are concerned about him and i hope they can get to the bottom of it for you. If it's not their asthma we worry about, it's the side effects of the meds they take......no wonder i am going grey !!!!!!

Best Wishes

Cathy xxxx

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Thanks ems mum,

I must admit I get a bit a freaked out by the possible side effects from the various medicines. I can deal with the asthma it's the bits that come with it I have trouble with. lol.

I lost faith in my GP a little when Jay had theo toxicity and she told me he had a virus and not to worry. I left him feeling really ill for a furthur 3 days before I demanded a blood test. It's easy to become paranoid about side effects and put every little problem down to meds, but it's a little worrying when I have a house with 3 kids and only Jayden comes down with the 'virus'. When one gets a cold they all do within a week, should virus' work the same way?

Will mention it at next o/p appt and see what they think.

Cheers Nikki