Prednisone, again

[Guest guest]

I went back up from 1 mg to 15 mg of Pred, planning on getting down

and off of it quickly. Now, after only 2 days, my

swollen, aching, fingers are just fine, but more than

that.........the horrible pain in my back is gone too! A couple of

weeks ago xrays showed 'degenerative joint disease' in my spine,

which I presumed meant osteo-arthritis. But, Pred doesn't work on

osteo does it? For the past couple of months, I have been having

some serious pain whenever I got up from a sitting position, and have

been unable to straighten up until I'd taken a few 'painful' steps.

Today, no pain, no trouble getting up and down ! I can't wait to

tell my rheumy because I realized that it began to hurt when he

started weaning me off the pred, but my labs didn't indicate

any inflammation. I know Prednisone is a bad drug, but it works. Of

course I did manage to come down with a good case of the uglies

today, probably because I don't sleep well when I'm on it. I guess

I'll have to decide what course I'm going to take, if I should stay

on it, maybe at 5 mg., until the end of February, when I see the

rheumy again, or dose down quickly to my 1 mg like I had planned.

I hate this nasty disease. I was more frightened of the PBC, but

this RA is just plain mean. I'm not as bad off as a lot of you seem

to be, or at least I didn't think I was. But if this is RA in my

back, it's moving and it's getting worse, quickly.

Patsy

El Mirage, AZ

DX 2005 Stage 1 PBC

AIH/SLE/RA/COPE

...just a woman of letters.