Prednisone for chronic pain?

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I sometimes take prednisone for sinus allergies. I have a bottle of abunch of 5mg pills that I take at my discretion; I take Singulair & the antihistamine Xyzal daily for allergies. The longest stretch I went on prednisone was about a month during the Christmas holidays & I was taking 15-25 mg a day. I don't have regular pain but I do sometimes do things that cause me to have pain & I still noticed pain doing chores during that month so I don't think it helped me any with pain then. The side-effects I noticed on it are mental related. It's harder for me to sleep, I'm somewhat hyper at times & a tad moody & angry like b!tchy. My girlfriend's brother took it regularly for asthma as a kid &/or his early teens & was latter put on hormones because he was short but I'm not sure how dangerous the hormone effects on prednisone will be on people like us who are post puberty but I'm scared to risk taking it long term.

Very dangerous long term. Don't do it unless you have to.

If it's hip pain, prednisone actually could be incredibly dangerous. My doctor said it, or maybe it was a different drug, can reduce the blood flow to them. Means you might need some nice new titanium ones.

If it really is autoimmune, there are milder drugs that can be used. Azapriothine and Humera are two of them. Humera is an injection and azapriothine is a tablet. Humera being a specialized antigen to prevent the body from attacking itself and Azapriothine being an immunosuppressant.

Edit: it's Humira, and also there is a version where you get an injection with help every eight weeks, Humora being an every two weeks pre-loaded self injection. Humira is apparently used for arthritis primarily, so maybe you should look into it?

^^Not to be Debbie Downer here, but those DMARD's (and all immunosuppressant drugs) can have pretty severe side effects, too.

trying to tough out pain is harmful to the health also, due to increased stress hormones. so it is a matter of picking one's poison.

It's a matter of finding out what's wrong and correcting it. It could be a posture issue for all I know, in which case you see a physical therapist. Usually the benefits are weighed against the side effects, which means it's incredibly useful to know what is actually wrong. As always, try and get some form of exercise, no amount is too little, no matter your condition. Immunosuppressants are very useful if it is the right form of arthritis.

@AB

I can tough-out the pain while I'm awake.... The problem is, I'd ALWAYS be awake. I cannot sleep without a bit of pain relief.

I can tell you, there is nothing more corrosive to the mind than lack of sleep.

I had some good luck and actually got in to see my new rheumatologist about 3 weeks early. He says it LOOKS like I do have extremely severe ankylosing spondylitis with Cauda Equina Syndrome.

The thing is, all of my labs have come back negative for everything... The doc had me get some new x-rays of my si joints, some additional blood work, and a confirmation that my HLA-B27 test was negative (genetic test for AS).

After all that stuff comes in I'm guessing I'll get some new drugs to try. I'm going to ask about triple therapy (methotrexate sulfasalazine plus hydroxychloroquine) which is supposed to be as/more effective than biologics like humira or enbrel and MUCH cheaper--enbrel can cost $2000.00/month!

I'm sure I'll also get referred to a neurologist for the CES. I hope that will give me an alternative to additional decompression surgery on my lumbar spine, but that's doubtful...

I'll probably spend the summer in rehab. But I have to do something. Right now, my condition is bad enough that it is interfering with my ability to do any of my internships. Pretty soon, if I cannot start interning, my academic progress will come to a grinding halt and I'll lose my scholarships and medical insurance. That CANNOT happen...

If you actually need Humira, myhumira is a program where they will dramatically cut your costs. Like company's down to five dollars and I'm not sure what if you don't have insurance. Look into discount programs. Two cents.

If you live in the US Goon you could try applying for SSI &/or state Medicaid(you'd automatically get Medicaid if you qualify for SSI) because having chronic pain conditions like that should be considered major disabilities. If you don't apply or get SSI & been rejected by Medicaid before, lots of states started a Medicaid expansion program this year as part of Obamacare; Louisiana which is the state I used to live rejected it but Vermont which is the state I live now accepted it. If those ideas don't work you could also try going to the health care dot gov site & looking for insurance plans. You might be able to qualify for a subsidy to cover the premium & most of the out of pocket cost. The amount of medical expenses you currently have or expect to have make a difference when applying for Medicaid & I think the subsidy.

My girlfriend has been having hip & back pain sense she was a kid & doesn't sleep well because of it. I think her lack of sleep could contribute to emotional disorders she has too that she started getting treatment for last year. She never had any of the pain or mental stuff looked at till last year after we moved in together; she quit seeing docs when she was 15. Her rheumatologist ruled everything out but the physical therapist she saw for a while thought one of her legs might be longer than the other. My girlfriend saw an orthopedist who did an xRay & checked her leg lengths & one is a centimeter & a half longer then the other. Her doc is working on getting her a shoe lift to counteract the difference in the shorter leg. She switched Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory pain meds & the one she just started seems to be working alittle more for her & she's able to sleep alittle better now. She may get an MRI on her back in the future & maybe get some deep tissue massage type physical therapy; she quit the other physical therapy because her Medicaid quit covering it after she she reached certain flexibility levels despite her still having pain. It will probably take along time for her body to get adjusted rite & quit having pain but at least a cause has been found & starting to get corrected.

I hope all that stuff goes well for you Goon & you can start feeling & sleep better soon without the need for Prednisone

^^^Hey, thanks for the info, but I don't qualify for medicaid because I have way too many assets. I have pretty good insurance via my university right now...

I'm sure I could get some assistance to pay for those high-dollar biologics like embrel or humira if it comes to that. However, I don't want to support those drug companies if I can help it. There should be a special place in hell for companies that price gouge the way they do...

Also, those biologics can cause cancer and make you extremely susceptible to things like TB... I'd rather stay away from that.

I can confirm Humira's assistance program reduces your cost to $5. I didn't sign up because my medicaid co-pay is only $3.

I've been on Prednizone, Azathioprine, Sulfasalazine and am starting Humira as soon as I get the syringe and the injection training. This is for Ulcerative Colitis.

Prednizone was the worst drug I have ever taken. I don't like to go into what happened to me on it. It's very triggering. Pretty much everyone gets side-effects from it. Most of them, as long as you only take it short term, are only really annoying. But there is also psychosis and roid rage, diabetes, obesity, etc. Most doctors use prednisone to help someone fast while they figure out a long term solution.

I had no side effects from Azathioprine. None. Unless you count the severity of the mono I had a couple years ago. It got me off of prednizone and kept me in remission for years.

Sulfasalazine colored bodily excretions yellow-orange. This includes sweat, so yellow stains can be an issue. It also causes sun sensitivity. (But so can AS, so I can't confirm if that was a side effect in my case or not) I took it in combination w/ Azathioprine.

The risk of cancer from biologics is relatively rare. Especially the deadly type that people worry about. Not to mention that it occurred mostly in young men taking it along w/ azathioprine for IBD.

Weakened immune system is a concern, but prednisone does it too. Other immune suppressants weaken your entire immune system while biologics are targeted to a specific agent, so in theory, that risk should be less.

It's all risk vs benefit. In my case, uncontrolled disease causes cancer anyway, and I am too ill not to take the Humira.