I’ve had a taste of what it’s like to be on the other side of the stethescope for the last 2 weeks. After being treated for a month for a cellulitis of the hand that I got when a psychotic patient dug her nasty fingernails into my flesh, I started with a bronchitis that progressed to severe bronchospasms that didn’'t respond to home treatment with oral antibiotics, steroids and inhalers. My doctor thinks that my immunse system was so stressed from fighting a systemic infection–meaning the hand cellulitis had gotten into my blood system and was affecting a lot of things. So tuesday when I went back in for a check up cause I literaly felt like I was going to die. I was sent straight to the hospital from the Doctor’s office with the rather grim diagnosis of “reactive airway disease with impending respiratory failure” Basically I was going to stop breathing if I didn’t get some quick help.
So I was admitted and hit with big time iv steroids–500 mg solumedrol to start and then tapering doses. Also antibiotics iv and by mouth, steroid inhalers, nasal inhalers both steroid and decongestant, allegra, singulair, and oxygen and hand held nebulizer breating treatment. I had several iv’s started, blood gases and other lab work done along with chest x-rays. I am feeling marginally better. I can speak 2 or 3 words without gasping now.
I came home yesterday with a grocery sack of prescription–my co-pay costs $110. Full cost was more than double that. The crowning touch is that I have to use a hand held nebulizer machine cause the only medication that works is unavailable in an inhaler.
I have never felt more pathetic and emotional. I found myself sitting there and crying over a show on Animal Planet—poor puppy… was…just… so sick sobsniff.
I know there is nothing more to do but just wait and hope I start to respond better. I’ve got a pulmonologist referral if I don’t start to improve better. The doctor’s are kinda baffled about what exactly is going on with me. But I have over 10 years working on a pulmonary floor so I know everything that can be done is being done.
Has anyone else ever went through something like this? Just consider this a shameless request for hugs, and good wishes. I love you guys!!!
My Mom has been on inhaled steroids and prednisone tablets for 25 years for chronic bronchial asthma (caused by being married to a smoker, but that’s another thread . . . ). A few things doctors don’t tell you:
• They can effect your mood. My Mom has temporary depressions whenever she has to adjust her dosage. So realize it’s just a chemical thing and will go away.
• If you take them longterm, they can caused discoloration of the legs, and can make the skin very fragile—my Mom gets serious cuts if she even bumps into a paper bag. But remember, she’s been on this stuff for decades . . .
• They might also cause you to retain fluid and thereby gain weight. IF this happens, cut salt out of your diet, but don’t overdo the diuretics, which can be dangerous.
• NEVER use over-the-counter inhalers. They can kill you.
I second the mood swings thing. I’ve been on two sterorid tapers this summer (Medrol and Prednisone) and they made me so goddamned edgy I was practicly scrounging up bus fare to the bridge. It went away within a few days of ceasing the vile things.
I’m sorry you’re feeling so poorly. I have an embarasing (for me) suggestion-- have you considered getting hyptmotised? My sweet sister in law had terrible plantar’s warts that didn’t respond to months of treatment, which fell off within days of getting hypmotised. Maybe it would give you an edge. At any rate, I do hope you feel better soon.
I’ve been on these before, for especially bad asthma - it was awful, and that was only for a short period of time. No new advice, but good wishes to you - I hope this passes soon.
Oh you poor thing! Been there, done that, so I have oodles of sympathy for you. It sounds like you work in medicine, so at least you know what to expect (although does anything ever really prepare you for the first IV steroid that feels like a red hot wire slowly creeping its way up your arm?).
My doctor explained about a million times that these were not the same steroids that one hears about athletes abusing. Which is all well and good, but he did skip the part about how I would start eating like an NFL linebacker on a binge. I would wake up crying (literally crying) for a milkshake. “But you ate the entire half gallon of ice cream at dinner!” Mr. Del would say in amazement (and fear, I think).
“I know,” I would wail, curled up in a fetal position in the corner, “but I’m so hungry.” It was weird being sick and hungry, because usally when I am sick I don’t have much of an appetite.
Strangely enough, the steroids put me in a good mood (or mabye it was all those Big Macs). Then I got depressed when I asked myself “gee, if mood swings make me feel happier, what does that say about my regular mood?”
After all that, I will say they worked like a charm. I hope you will have the same results! Not being able to breathe is a horrible feeling, and the steroids are usually able to take care of that.
Oh yeah I am an RN and have many many times counseled my own patients on the side effects of steroid use. It is just kind of weird experiencing it first hand. Exhausted but too nervous to sleep, restless but too out of wind to do much more than walk out onto the deck, pant for a minute and come back in (next time I’ll make it to the grass) almost manic-depressive with the mood swings and an appetite 10 times normal. I rarely snack at night but last midnight I went in the kitchen for a glass of water and ended up eating 4 donuts which I knew were for my hubby’s breakfast, this I followed with a glass of milk, a banana and an ice cream bar over the next 45 minutes or so. And my belly still felt empty.
After the binge I did my last Hand Held Nebulizer treatment, (HHN tx) cried for a while cause I’m such a frigging physical and emotional wreck, took 2 nerve pills–which I never take but have to counteract the shakes from the breathing tx. Then I went to bed and hugged up to my hubby in front of me and put my puppy at my back. I slept for almost 3 hours before I had to get up to start on my AM round of drugs and treatments.
I just want to say again that I know I’m just venting and blathering on but God it feels good just to be able to whine a bit. My husband, bless him, just can’t sit and listen, he feels the need to try to tell me how to fix things. You know–“come on Honey, you’ll get better,you are better, You can speak a whole sentence now, just take your pills and tx’s, and we’ll get thru this” “why don’t you try moving around more, you’ll feel better if you get out and maybe work in the garden or something, Pick tomatoes?” Yeah I’ll try that when I can go the the bathroom with panting…
The absolute worst part is that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I spend a lot of time thinking,…thinking…maybe it’s not my lungs, maybe it’s my heart, maybe I’ve got a subacute bacterial endocarditis, or heart valve damage (I wonder what my ejection fraction is)or pulmonary hypertension, or a fungal ball or what about…
Oh Mermaid, I have to laugh with you here (mind you, it’s with you) cause I know that even with the little bit of medical training I had in the military (became a registered EMT and could’ve taken my LPN), our instructors warned us that we’d go through a certain bit of paranoia about our health the more we learned. Every cough is the beginning of lung cancer, every stomach ache is a growth.
Poor thing! Get a good, mindless video (try Bedazzled) to watch to take your mind off things.
I tapered from a high dose of Prednisone earlier this year. I begged the doc to let me off of them. One of the most awfull meds I’ve ever had the misfortune to be on.
I’m really sorry that you have to go through the Pred munchies and mood swings. Hopefully you won’t be on them long enought to get the dreaded moon-face and skin reactions.
I am so glad to find this sight! My 8 yr old son received steroids just less than 2 weeks ago, and has been on liquid steroids since then. He finished those 5 days ago. Yesterday, he started telling me about the bugs he sees on his arms, the mice following him when he walks, and the stranger that is either punching him in the face, choking him, or sticking a needle in his arm!
I’ve had children on steroids before, but none that reacted this way. Tonight, he is cold & clammy!
When I read 'Mermaid’s" statement about being extra whiney & cranky, and maybe someone else mentioned crying for a milkshake, the light went off in my brain! That is exactly how he has been!
Does anybody have any helpful solutions, from experience?
Yeah - especially since the fellow finished them up several days ago!! The mood swings etc should have tapered off by now and full-blown hallucinations sound pretty extreme.
The OP was made over 10 years ago; she appears to have survived since she was on the boards in the past few months.
Welcome to the SDMB, MomofQ. This thread is more than ten years old, so the original participants may not be around. I’ll leave it open in case others want to comment – and will move it to IMHO, which is where we place medical threads to remind participants that advice on the internet is no substitute for talking to a trained medical professional.
I also had the predinasone thing, could not stand it, I found that potassium helped with the depression, when the body has a craving it tries to balance, eat more bananas, or get a vitamin supplement. Ask your doc to check your chemisty and see if its low, and get them to give you a supplement, they are way better.
