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Anonymous

I am the 70 year old lady who wrote on Sept. 1, 2015 about my dramatic response to prednisone. No reason was ever found to account for it, such as Polymyalgia Rheumatica, Lupus, and other autoimmune diseases - until I had an Addisonian Crisis 3 months after my post. I had been at my cardiologist's office for a complete workup and stress test morning of Dec. 18. We stopped for lunch and I immediately began having severe abdominal cramps. Those turned into violent vomiting/diarrhea for several hours. My son found me semiconscious in the bathroom upon coming home from work. I couldn't move! Frozen like a statue! I couldn't speak to answer his questions. 911 was called and I came around with IV in ambulance. ER doctors found I had an adrenal (Addisonian) Crisis, caused by a silent UTI. My adrenals could not handle the stress of it, and the following dehydration. They said I was close to going into a coma. Massive steroids over 6 days in the hospital - along with 6 antibiotics fixed me up. They warned me to get to an ER if I ever have more than 3 successive bouts of vomiting/diarrhea which will cause dehydration that my body can't handle. It happened again in January of this year. I had the vomiting/diarrhea, dehydration, unable to move or speak. Was transported by ambulance to ER. I had just gotten bronchitis the day before, and my body couldn't handle it! I wear Life Alert pendant and carry the GPS when out. I have notes in my car/house for EMTs in case I can't speak in an emergency. It is no trivial matter! One can die from this. I urge all those who receive a dramatic high from prednisone to have adrenal studies done. This is your body saying "There's what I've been missing!" I am on maintenance dose of 15 mg/day - increasing to 20 with extra activity, infection, surgery, or stress. I will be getting a large stress dose in my IV on Tuesday during knee replacement. I have osteoporosis from the prednisone, and fractured three vertebrae in falls over the past 2 years. Those can be handled, but I can't move without prednisone now. I also take thyroid hormone replacement. The benefits outweigh the risks in this case.

July 14, 2017 - 7:21am

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