Bad Prednisone Reaction and Pentasa?

Hi All! I've appreciated so much of the information that I've read here so thank you all for sharing your situations. I hope I can gain some insight here with this question.

I've been flaring since Sunday (first flare since after diagnosis in December '11) and went to see my Dr. yesterday. I had some labs and a ct scan and started prednisone this morning. About 30 minutes after taking it, I began to feel hot and itchy, then came the huge quarter sized welts on my face. At that time, I got a call from a nurse at the Dr. office to talk about my ct scan and I told her about what was happening. She asked if my tongue was swelling and I felt and looked in the mirror and it was! Then my throat started swelling too! Thankfully my husband was near to home and I took the kids over to the neighbors and we went to the ER. After about 2 hours, everything had subsided and I never had a full on allergic reaction, but they still aren't sure if I am allergic or if it was just the side effects of the pred. The Dr's also suspect that Pentasa may be to blame (even though I've been on that since December with no adverse effects at all??!!) and I go back to my Dr on Monday and have to stop all meds until then. Thankfully my flare has subsided enough that I will be fine this weekend, hopefully.

He already mentioned that since the Pentasa isn't working, we may be looking at some of the bigger drugs, specifically Imuran. Now I'm wondering what my options are and what kind of research I should do on my own before my appointment. I am also breastfeeding a 6 month old, so I can't just take any kind of drug at the moment, there are a few restrictions.

Has anyone had any experience along these lines or can you direct me where to go so I can be well informed by Monday?

Thanks in advance!:ysmile:

I'm seeing people saying this more and more recently. I had a similar reaction to pred, I took 25mg and that night my skin broke out in itchy welts (I suffered from pre-existing skin-problems though). I stopped immediately, I have been on entocort for 4 days and although I am not reacting to it, it doesn't seem to be helping.

Thanks SnowDay. I have been reading some recent threads of bad reactions, too. When I scheduled my appt for Monday, the nurse mentioned I would probably go on Entocort at that time. So we will see.

Entocort can take a few days to a couple weeks to notice a change. I prefer it over Prednisone any day. Sorry you had such a bad reaction and it does sound like an allergic reaction from the Prednisone rather than the Pentasa since you've been on it for so long already. Be sure to let your doctor know that you're currently breastfeeding as Entocort will be passed through the breast milk.

I also had an allergic reaction when I took pred. My face and neck were red, puffy, and itchy, it was scary and awful. Right when I got the symptoms I took a benydrl and luckily everything got better after a half an hour. When I called my doc he said it was rare to be allergic to pred, but it could happen. Do you have any other allergies to other meds? This was the first med I had been allergic to, and I didn't expect to be allergic to it.
Also maybe mention LDN to your doc, I don't know if it's safe for people who are breastfeeding, but it barly has any side effects and is not an immumosuppressent. I just started taking it last night and haven't seen any side effects, so I have my fingers crossed.

Dogluv- No, I've never had any allergies to anything, so this was very new for me! I have read about LDN on this forum, but not to intensively yet. Maybe I will have to do this tonight so that I can ask about it tomorrow. Thanks for your suggestion!

So I went to the Dr. today and will start on Entocort tomorrow. Hopefully that will work fairly quickly to take care of this flare while we try to decide where to go from here on other medications.

Im glad You found an alternative to the pred, hopefully the entocort works well. Another thing I forgot to mention was enternal nutrition. I've been on it for quite a long time and it seems to work well for me. It's a diet where you drink nutritional shakes instead of food, so your intestines get a break from having to digest, and break down food. There's a few different formulas: peptamen, vivonex, modulen, ensure and boost. You can buy the final two at places like walmart and their cheaper then the others. I like this treatment because it doesn't have any side effects, that's why I tried it in the first place. If you have any questions feel free to ask, maybe this treatment could work for you.