# Bloody prednisolone...love ya, hate ya. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 7, 2014, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloody-prednisolone-love-ya-hate-ya/695009 "2014-08-07T05:54:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2014, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloody-prednisolone-love-ya-hate-ya/695009/1 "2014-08-07T05:54:52Z")
After a recent bout with ‘Aeroplane Ear’ and the resulting deafness that ensued, a doc prescribed a short but relatively high dose of _prednisolone_ to treat the underlying inflammation. All good, my hearing was back within 48 hrs and better than ever! But the script was just for a four-day course (50mg per day)…so yesterday I took my last pills. And OMG…damn if I don’t feel like shit warmed up today. My whole body is wracked with pain…it hurts to touch my back, neck and arms, like sunburn but with a goodly kicking from a horse tossed in there as well. Shit, even my _face_ hurts. I guess that the doc figured that I was on it for such a short time that tapering off wasn’t necessary…but faaaaarg. 😕 Pred, you are one brilliant muthafucka of a drug, but you really know how to make someone hate your pharmacological guts. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2014, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloody-prednisolone-love-ya-hate-ya/695009/2 "2014-08-07T07:16:20Z")
Crap. Glad the ears are better. Sorry to hear about the pred reaction. Hope it gets better soon. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2014, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloody-prednisolone-love-ya-hate-ya/695009/3 "2014-08-07T09:14:49Z")
I’m self-medicating with pred at the moment. I’ve had a cough for about four months and three courses of antibiotics have done nothing. I’ve also tried the old faithfuls (Senega & Ammonia and another chesty cough medicine, which I’ve had to resort to since some bastard decided to take Brondecon Expectorant off the market). I’ve also been desperate enough to get into the garlic, echinacea and horseradish. All to no avail. Hence the pred. One dose - _one_ - of 37.5mg saw an improvement. I’m going to stay on it for a fortnight, weaning after a week and cross all my fingers and toes that the cough doesn’t come back. ---
**Author:** ![ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2014, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloody-prednisolone-love-ya-hate-ya/695009/4 "2014-08-07T09:37:29Z")
I **hate** the stuff, but it kicks the everlovin shit out of the bronchitis I get every other year. Usually 10 days or 2 weeks. I’ll sleep less than 3 hrs a night, have a constant headache, eat like a horse and after the first week I start feeling like Godzilla looming out of Tokyo Bay due to the euphemistically named “mental status changes” ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2014, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloody-prednisolone-love-ya-hate-ya/695009/5 "2014-08-07T13:00:01Z")
Yeah, no need to taper unless it’s been a week, last I checked, but 50 mg is a pretty impressive dose; no wonder you’re feeling like shit. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2014, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloody-prednisolone-love-ya-hate-ya/695009/6 "2014-08-07T13:12:03Z")
I lurves me some prednisolone, but that’s because I have some sort of undiagnosed autoimmune disorder, and a short course of the stuff kicks it in the pants. However, the only times I’ve ever taken it, I got “do this or _ **DIE** _” instructions on tapering the dosage at the end of the course. Four days sounds like a very short course, but I had a five day course that included tapering the dose. So, for your benefit, here’s the list of symptoms you can expect if you have an Addisonian crisis caused by abrupt cessation of steroids: [ul] [li]nausea or abdominal pain[/li] [li]vomiting[/li] [li]fever[/li] [li]joint pain[/li] [li]loss of appetite[/li] [li]dramatic changes in blood pressure[/li] [li]weakness[/li] [li]chills[/li] [li]rashes of the skin[/li] [li]an irregularly high heart rate[/li][/ul] So, you know, don’t die or anything, okay?