Floating feelings symptoms and conditions

Ultracet works for the pain but the tingly-fuzzy-sleeplessness, hallucinations, floating feelings were so weird, my son asked me (jokingly of course) to "hook him up". One instead of two, works okay for pain and the side effects are much less disturbing. Still, I take them sparingly. I described the effects to my doctor as "an unpleasant high".

I had a severe poison ivy/sumac reaction and slowly the swelling in my face reached the point of affecting my breathing, so I had an emergency treatment with Prednisone. This was my first experience with this drug. (I am not one to use allopathic medicine unless it's an emergency.) The first dose was shots, then I was put on a "med pak" of methylprednisolone, to be used for 5 or 6 days, tapering down the dosages day by day. By the third day, I began to find the side effects increasingly intense. I had had a mild headache, some chest pressure, funny bone aches, stomach/liver aches, as well as sensations of spacy-ness, floating feelings, difficulty focusing my eyes at times, and my attention, etc.; but the chest pressure was what worried me most. It was all on the left side. I eventually called the doctor because the pressure and discomfort was beginning to become severe each time I took a pill. He agreed to let me stop the prednisone. I had about 2 days left of tapering to one a day, but couldn't stand to take anymore. It was beginning to feel like a life or death situation! (My rash is flaring a little now, but not seriously. I am using alternative remedies as well, and things don't seem to be reversing to where they were, thankfully.) I had missed quite a bit of work, and did not feel like myself. Yesterday was my 2nd day off the pills, and I stayed home to work on flushing my system of the prednisone. I felt like I was going through withdrawal. Today I feel much more like myself. I know now that a lot of the "sickness" I was feeling wasn't just an allergic reaction to a plant--I was sick from the medicine as well. In fact, I think it was more the medicine than the poison ivy that kept me out of work. I appreciate the use of something like prednisone in emergency cases...it may have saved my life...but from now on, I'm going to do whatever I can to avoid having to ever use this drug again. It was clearly very damaging to my body. I hope I was able to eradicate it enough, and was not on it long enough to cause any permanent damage. I have not noticed any more pain in my chest since stopping the medicine. (I may, however, insist that my doctor run some tests to make sure there isn't damage, although the damage might not be something they could easily measure at this point. I have no history of heart problems, and a stress test a few years back came out great.) I would seriously encourage anyone who has to use prednisone more than a few days to look for alternatives, or insist (to your doctor) on alternatives (that hopefully won't be worse). This drug is VERY, VERY toxic and dangerous!! I'm very aware of how my body responds to what I put in it. A lot of people aren't as in touch with their body's responses, and may start on a roller coaster of treatments as things come up, not realizing that the problem may have to do with their medicine. I believe this is the case with a lot of the elderly who frequently end up taking pills to remedy the symptoms created by other pills! Good luck to everyone, and God bless us all!!!