Urgent medication issue - it just occured to me!

[gritsar]

Something urgent just occured to me.
I've been on steroids (prednisone) for a month now, treating a flair up on my celiac/crohn's disease. Yesterday I asked the doc if I could stop taking it now. I'm tired of feeling like the goodyear blimp. He said he didn't want me to stop abruptly, that since I was on 10 mg. a day, he wanted me to do 5 mg. a week then 2.5 mg. for a week, then stop.
We got home from town, after picking up Rxs at the pharmacy and it occured to me that they hadn't called in my prednisone refill. Doctor's office is closed until Monday and the pharmacy is closed for the night.
I'm out of the 10 mg. as of this morning, so I guess I am going to be stopping it abruptly, whether I like it or not.

What if any side effects should I expect from the sudden stop?

I consider myself fairly well-informed about medications from years of working as a medication nurse for a group of surgeons and as a pharmacy tech., but that was a lifetime ago.

 

[KellyHM]

Google "Addisonian Crisis". That's your worst case scenario, but since you've only been on steroids for a month it's unlikely that youur adrenals have stopped producing their own cortisone this quickly. They should function fine and you really shouldn't have many side effects.

ETA: Here's a good page of symptoms to look out for: http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...4wEwAA&usg=AFQjCNEI0rT59n5RbYZDD6yQpqNW9Mf4Yw

 

[mangled]

I would call the answering service in the AM, and ask for the on-call to call in the refill. A month of steroids is a goodly amount of time and you really should wean off. If the answering service says they won't page for a prescription refill, you tell the answering service you will hold them personally responsible for any reactions/side effects that you have. That'll get their attention.

Blessings-
Em
(an old battle-scarred RN)

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I would also call the service. That is why they are there. Prednisone is nasty stuff. You really do have to wean off of it slowly so your body has time to adjust.

I have had Crohns for almost 20 years now. I was initially put on Prednisone and ended up staying on it for 4 years. It was horrible. I instantly gained about 60+lbs, was evil and cranky all the time and it had a whole slew of side effects. On the plus side, my Crohns was under control. That was great! Four years is entirely too long to stay on a steroid though. I moved to Nashville and got a new GI doctor. He was horrified by the long term pred use and instantly started trying other options. Thankfully there are all sorts of new options out there for Crohns patients. I currently do Remecaid every 8 weeks. It works like a charm. I am able to eat pretty much what I want (in moderation) and I feel pretty good most of the time.

All of that to say that there are all sorts of options out there if you end up having crohns. It is possible to live a mostly normal life with mostly normal eating habits. Good luck to you. It is an annoying disease. I hope that you feel better soon.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Trust me, you do NOT want to have a reaction to steroids. I did a few years back (too much in my system, and they had to wean me off as rapidly as they could) but it still took a good week or two.

My dose was considerably higher than yours, but I hadn't been on it for much longer. They are weaning you off the last bit rather abruptly. If my doctor had me taking 2.5 per day, for a week, he would have me start skipping days for another week.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

Generally your pharmacy will give you a few pills until the physician office opens on Monday. Especially in this instance...

 

[debilorrah]

I would also call the answering service, and THEN call the pharmacy and explain the situation to them. Pharmacies are usually pretty good about making sure someone has what they need for a few days til they can get the script.

 

[gritsar]

Sorry I didn't reply to y'all last night. We had a bad thunderstorm come through so I shut the computer down.

Our doctor doesn't have a service. Don't know any doctor around here that does as a matter of fact. You just get a message on their answering machine instructing you to go to the ER. We'll be going to town in a bit and I'll talk to the pharmacist.

CityGirlintheCountry, I talked to the doctor about that during my visit the other day. He said I would only need the prednisone for flairs. I'm following a stict gluten free diet and a semi-strict lactose free diet and doing much better already.

I was really worried about taking the prednisone initially because I've had trouble with it in the past, but this time it wasn't as bad. I just wouldn't want to have to take it regularly - the weight gain and the elevated BP (raising the systolic to the 130s when I'm used to the 90s) would get real old after awhile.

 

[GaNewChick]

Many times a pharmacy will give you enough pills to get through the weekend if they know you and know the doctor will be calling it in on Monday. I've done it for my husband's blood pressure pills. They gave me 3 to get through Monday until the doctor could refill it.

(See this has been mentioned ... several times) What I get for not reading all the responses before replying ...

 

[sourland]

Check with your pharmacy and try to get enough pills to carry you through the weekend. You do not want to deal with abrupt withdrawal.