EMERGENCY. Need help NOW

[catelyn]

Glad she is ok.

[becca]

Missed this whole thing.  So sorry!  Glad she is home and okay.  How awful and frightening an ordeal. 

[booandbrimom]

Wow, so glad it worked out o.k.! So hard to let them go.

[hedgehog]

Talked to her last night.  I am now sobmad she changed her appt from yesterday to Tuesday.  She had been told by the first doctor it was ok to go off te prednisone, and she was going to.  But the first day, she started to get a little bit of a rash, so went right back on it.  This prescription was supposed to be until Sunday.  She stayed on it a couple of extra days, because she did not want to go off it until seeing a doctor again, which I agreed with.  But I also got an appt for Thursday because I wanted her to either discontinue or get the ok to stay in it ASAP.  Staying on prednisone (sounds like a pretty high dose as well,but I am not sure) for that long with a doctor's ok is not good. 

[becca]

She would need to wean off of it, not just stop it.  Especially after taking it for any length of time, as opposed to just a day or two.  Maybe that is why she is rebounding?  So hard not being able to be there with her. 

[CMdeux]

Whoahhhh-- yeah, even a moderate dose for a day or two requires tapering doses at the end.      Yikes.

[hedgehog]

Spoke to her last night.  She was considering stopping before getting to the doctor Tuesday.  I told her she will need to taper off, and to ask the doctor about the best way to go about that.  I just wish she had already seen that doctor, and would already have that answer.

[GoingNuts]

Arrrgh - young adult children. 

I hope she's listening to you. 

[Janelle205]

Yeah, as someone who has been on pred bursts more times than I can count and constant pred for nearly two and a half years, you cannot just go cold turkey on it, even if it seems like it hasn't been long.

I spent 2-3 weeks recently dropping my dose by only 3 mg ridiculously slowly, and I was miserable.  It is not a good time, and if you stop suddenly, it can be life threatening.

[twinturbo]

Does this apply to the 3-7 day dose allergist or ER prescribes for kids after reaction? The pharmacy or prescribing physicians never mentioned this. OMG.

[hedgehog]

DD has been on three day courses of prednisone several times for swollen tonsils with strep. 

She never had to taper down before. Or at least not until the first round recently, when the family doctor here put her on it before the trip.  Then she was on the highest dose fot three days, stepped
down for three days, then the lowest dose for another three.  And DD thought that was strange, and didn't really know that tapering off is usually how it is done.

[CMdeux]

Does this apply to the 3-7 day dose allergist or ER prescribes for kids after reaction? The pharmacy or prescribing physicians never mentioned this. OMG.

Initial dose with tapering dosage is usually included automatically in those regimens-- that is, you might have a script that instructs; "take 4 tablets daily with food for first two days, then one tablet morning and night for two days, then one tablet each morning for two days."

[twinturbo]

It's always been liquid, same dose. The only instructions are to take it everyday or risk of death. Nice to know not a single med person in the equation warned us. Ever. At least I know to ask now.

[CMdeux]

If it's a relatively low dose, then there may be little need-- also, the younger the patient, the less severe the consequences of an abrupt step-down.

For adults and adolescents, though-- bad news to stop a moderate or high dose without a stepdown.

[Janelle205]

Before I started taking daily pred, whenever I had a short course, it always included a taper.  When docs up my dose now for a sickness, it usually includes a taper as well - usually so many days at 40mg, same at 30, same at 20, and then back to my daily dose of 15mg - which we recently reduced to 12.

Stopping it suddenly carries a risk of adrenal crisis - basically your adrenal glands can stop working or be suppressed when you are on pred, so if they don't kick back in when you stop, really ugly things can happen to you.  There is a much, much lower risk of this if you are only on it for a few days though.