Hi there,
after 8 days of hell I woke up this morning feeling wonderful. Last time I blogged I was more worried about my knees than steroid withdrawal symptoms but I soon realised that withdrawal was the big beast.
I know that everyone is different & reactions to steroids vary hugely but here is how it went for me as some kind of encouragement at least to anyone else coming off the things:
One month on 10mg of Prednisolone per day followed by two months of 5mg per day. Stopped abruptly, no taper. I then experienced extreme sensitivity to pain, nearly constant headache, toothache, sudden depression, pain in previously unaffected joints and, after the first couple of days, fatigue. I found that all of this improved in the evenings.
This morning I still felt a bit groggy but once that went I had a real ALLELUIA moment - not only had all of the above symptoms disappeared but I also feel more normal & clear-headed than I did on steroids. Incredible! Glad I lasted out, was just about to go to the doc to get Preds for a one day on, one day off taper.
(Sadly, my knees are still very sore without their little steroid mates, and I walk like a zombie, every step hurts etc. but that doesn't seem to matter too much now I at least feel human!)
I suppose I would still advise tapered withdrawal though. I would not want to go through that again or for anyone else to.
All the best, Christina xx