I am doing a charity Skinny dip with North East Skinny Dip in aid of MIND next weekend. I am supposed to be there between 5am and 6am to go in to the North Sea from Druridge Bay Northumberland at 7am. There will be about 1500 naked people running into 12 degree water welcoming in the Autumn Equinox!
My question is should I take extra pred and earlier to deal with this? I am currently on 5mg, taking it at 2am, I feel ok’ish but this is a bit of a challenge!
At the risk of sounding like a mum suelm, if you are a PMR/GCA sufferer, I don’t think this is a sensible idea. Our illnesses are significant systemic diseases, you could make yourself quite poorly. There is the cold water shock that we keeping hearing about and the proneness to infection. However ever if you are doing it for our charity and are feeling great - why not? At no stage of my illness would I have been capable of contemplating it, especially if I needed steroids to do it. 😂. I applaud the desire though. Who doesn’t want to break free?
A very worthy cause, but unless you are used to cold water swimming you might be asking too much of yourself…
..but of course it’s your decision -and good luck if you decide to do it.
Thank you for your reply, I think my main concern was how early it was as I usually take my pred at 2am.
That should still be okay…
I'm saying nothing - unless you are a regular cold water swimmer ...
Think I'd miss out the extra Pred and pack a wet suit!!!! Hope all goes well. Certainly a good cause.
I can wear a hat and shoes nothing else 🤣🤣🏊🏻♂️🥶🌊🌅
Brilliant! I admire your joie de vivre and sheer balls (balls sounds all wrong in this context, but you know what I mean 
). I wouldn't mind the earliness or the cold, but the nakedness might be a bit more than I could cope with, otherwise I might have joined you lol. Druridge Bay is stunning and Northumberland is one of my favourite parts of our beautiful country to visit.
Looking at the other comments, I'm probably a bit out of line in being so gung ho. I have swum throughout my PMR (when I have enough energy to leave the house) and the only time I feel comfortable and my energy levels feel normal is when I am in the water, especially if the pool is a bit on the cold side. Normally I swim indoors, but I swam in an outdoor pool on holiday in Feb and it felt fantastic. It seems to help my ouchie bits.
All I would say is that I hope that you have a good support crew to help you get warm and dry afterwards and give you a hot drink. Re the pred, if it were me, I would take it beforehand. Have a fantastic time, and let us know how you get on.
Thank you for the support, it amazes me how different we all are, cold showers and cold swimming definitely make my aches and pains less, I also tend to feed the chickens in very cold weather in just pyjamas, very cold, but, I don’t stay cold for very long then warm up well! I definitely feel the benefit!
Hi Sue, I'm 66 and been on 3.5mg daily for several months. I walked 124 miles on the north Offas Dyke in July without issue. I am used to walking daily and seemes to cope very well with that July walking week. My hunch is that your swim will be fine, but have a few dips before the event itself.
Whoops, took extra pred by mistake!
EXTRA GCA (pred side effects)
A little extra pred in certain circumstances.
Weight gain: Pred or extra food?
Outdoor swimming, pred, cataracts and tinted goggles!
