Adrenal Insufficiency from Prednisone

Hi Guys,

I started a course of Prednisone to get my UC under control, back in April. The doctor put me on 40mg tapering down every 5 days by 5mg.

When I got down to 20mg the doctor told me that I could do a faster taper of 5mg every 3days because i was having some pretty severe side effects from the Pred (fatigue, anxiety, depression, dizziness etc).

When I finally got off the prednisone I still felt pretty terrible but eventually the depression and anxiety went away. After 4 weeks though I was still very tired and dizzy.

I went back to the doctor and he said I might have come off the prednisone too quickly, so i am now back on 5mg and tapering 2.5 every 7 days.

I still feel absolutely terrible, constantly tired and a lot more dizzy than when I was off the pred.

Has anybody else had this happen to them? How long does it normally take to feel better after prednisone?

I've been out of action for almost 2 months now thanks to prednisone and I have never felt worse.

This is quite normal. There is no specified timeline..some people feel relief in a matter of days, others over a year. If you are still having issues, your doctor can administer a blood test to see where your ACTH levels are (Adrenocorticotropic) hormone are at to give a baseline. That would be your best bet to make sure that everything is functioning normally, since steroids could possibly due permanent damage, though it is unlikely.

Newly dx and not on meds yet...so not a lot of help from me, however I wanted to say I hope you feel better!