Steroid symptoms and conditions

I had my Mirena IUD put in May 1st of 2007 and all the side effects that came along with it......the constant spotting, acne, itching breasts (which I thought was due to new bras that I had just purchased), nausea, depression (which I had to go back to taking Wellbutrin), no energy; tired all the time. My biggest side effect which I have not found any others to have is Allergies. I know it sounds crazy, but I have never had problems with allergies until a month and half after getting the IUD, extreme allergy symptoms, swollen glands, neck pain, very shortness of breath; to the point that I was down for a whole day here and there, I am having to take Allegra; had to get a steroid shot. Now that it is cold, I thought I would be getting break from the allergies, nope. I joined a gym hoping that it would help in giving me energy, nope.........I have talked to my Dr and the nurses that work with my gyno and they act as if I am making this stuff up. It is very frustrating when you know that your body has done a complete 360 in the wrong direction and everyone seems to think your crazy.

Well I am having my IUD taken out as soon as I can!

My 8yo son has been on Singulair for his asthma for about 2 weeks and he has complained of a 'sick tummy' regularly, ending up in tears because he can't do things. We have had a long run of this, perhaps due to the 8 lots of penicillin for tonsillitis, and some tummy bugs going around the schools I work in. The doctor has been suggesting irritable bowel syndrome so we didn't think of the Singulair side effects until it has got so bad that he is not going to school.He has been unusually clingy and almost paranoid about small things that don't usually worry him over the past couple of weeks. We were trying these tablets as he has been on steroid based preventer since he was 3 and we wanted to get him off the cortisone stuff. After reading here he is off the Singulair today and we will report the side effects to the paediatrician.

My 2 year old son has been taking Singulair for about a month. He had a bad asthma attack in September and was on albuterol and prednisone. Then the dr. prescribed Pulmicort and after giving it to him for 3 days and reading the literature, I stopped giving it to him because it had terrible side effects. The dr. was not happy with me and I agreed to put him on Singulair since it wasn't a steroid.

He has always been clingy and never a good sleeper. Recently he's been sleeping terribly and having awful night terrors. He can't really talk much yet, so I can't ask him what is wrong, but he'll wake up looking terrified and shaking and pointing at the celing and nothing is there. I can barely get him calmed back down. He also has gotten worse about not being with me. He has to have his hand on me at all times when we around other people. As I said, he's always been clingy, but he's just been worse lately. Also, he's had a stuffy nose since he went on the Singulair. He can no longer breathe out of his nose at all. When he's sleeping he snores terribly and sometimes gasps, which scares me. It's like an apnea thing. He's also been sleeping until 10 - 10:30 am which he's never done.

My husband did not want him taking it from the start, but I was stupid and did what I wanted instead of listening to him. Now I realize his gut feeling was right on and it makes me almost cry. He is too little to be telling me if his head or body hurts or what he is feeling, so he may be feeling even worse than I suspect.

I am going to research diet changes and see if that is something we can do to control his asthma. We're also seeing a chiropractor and trying some things to boost his immune system so he won't get sick and have it lead to asthma attacks.

Thank you all so much for sharing your stories. I appreciate it more than you know. I hate that any of our children (or you adults) have had to go through these things, but sharing your experiences makes it worth it so that others won't have to go through the same. Thank you!

My 12-year old son has been high dose prednisone for his asthma flare ups. I know that the "moon face" is common. However, since using this prednisone, he has bad acne breakouts on his forehead, cheeks, chin and even in his head. He also has broken out in a rash on his neck. Common or uncommon? There seems to be nothing to help with the acne, either.

I got my Decadron injection on Oct 17th. My period came 4 days late on the 25th and it never left. It has now been 3 weeks of bleeding. Has anyone else had similar experience? The side effects list menstrual irregularity, but 3 weeks? It is not showing any sign of slowing down either.

I've seen alot of info on Kenalog and bleeding long and that is a steroid as well.

After my father's office was flooded by an AC backup at his workplace in June 2006, and as a result mold grew in the carpeting & walls. He got very, very sick & his doctor put him on Prednisone for almost a year. No local doctor nor specialist told us of the dangers of being on a steroid for more than a few weeks. My father kept getting sicker & sicker until one day in March of 2007 we had to rush him to the ER. There his doctor arrived, put MORE prednisone directly into his veins and as my father grew weaker & sicker we knew we had to get him out of there. We took him to Shands in Gainesville and they immediatly began their magic. It took a good week or so to undo the immediate damage that Prednisone had done to my father. It took until this month (October) until his liver & vital organs started working properly again and reached safe levels. In fact, he's still being carefully monitored by his Shands doctor to ensure his body will continue healing itself. His new doctor told me that if we hadn't taken my dad to Shands that day, he would absolutely be dead. Prednisone is a very lethal, dangerous drug if perscribed for more than a few weeks at most! Please, if your doctor wants you to take this steroid any longer than that, go see another doctor immediatly! It will save your life.

I was a 2:42 marathoner. I used a synthetic varnish containing isocyanates, pentanedione, organic solvents, in one 7-hour session; the company-recommended respirator did not in fact prevent transmission: Severe chemically- induced asthma, plus neuropathy, plus, plus.

I've used Advair 500/50 for six years. There have been many diverse effects from the chemical exposure; I'd not questioned any being Advair side effects. But the raised blood pressure was not initial, and certainly not a priori. Diminished hearing, diminished eyesight, anxiety. Again, not to lump in, but these questions are new for me. But the point I'd like to bring before this group is this: In August I was diagnosed with ehlichiosis , and was prescribed 28 days on doxycycline. They recommend eliminating many possible antagonists to the doxycycline. My respiratory capacity had been continually diminishing. My ongoing physician said this was to be expected and recommended only the next more powerful steroid. Not a good solution. Before all this I was strong; repaired myself. In the absence of constructive answers, wondering if the Advair was weakening me, making me dependent, I quit the Advair as well on beginning the doxycycline. Today is eleven days post-doxycycline. Eight days ago there began with increasing severity, a terrible wracking deep cough producing dark yellow mucus. Painful. No fever. Grevious throat from the wracking, but I question whether this is a cold or infection. It's just in my lungs. Maybe it's as though I've thrown off an epithelial coating. These past two days the quantity of deep yellow mucus is not as ready, but the wracking and coughing is more severe. And my lung capacity, my respiratory capacity, is frighteningly diminished. Until these past two days I'd considered this an infection, especially post-doxy. But it doesn't feel like an infection. And I'm scared. Is this because I quit the Advair abruptly after long regular use? Have any of you had a similar experience. Can you discuss the effects of abruptly discontinuing Advair. Have you stayed off it. What's happened to your respiratory capacity. Have you any professional studies, trials or experience to recommend. Thanks.

I am a 30 year old female who had taken Avelox several times in the past for sinus infections. However, this time, I had a very scary reaction. About one hour after taking the first dose, I began to have a severe burning sensation on my face, neck, and ears. My skin turned red and looked as if I were sunburned. Within three hours, my whole body was red and burning, but I was shivering terribly. I had a tingling sensation where I felt like pins and needles were being stuck all over my body. I began to vomit and my feet hurt so bad that I couldn't stand to put shoes on or to walk. I also felt very nervous. I went to the ER where I was given an IV with Benadryl and Pepcid for the reaction. I was also given a steroid and pain medication. I had to stay in the ER all night to be monitored.

My 8 year old son began using Advair this year after a bout of wheezing sent us to Urgent care. When he was finally officially diagnosed with Asthma this fall, our GP gave us Advair again. My son did great as far as asthma and breathing - didn't need his rescue inhaler once. Unfortunately he gained 8 pounds in 3 weeks and his face and stomach began to look extremely puffy. He also had 3 nosebleeds in quick succession, one when he slept which was a much larger nosebleed than he'd ever had before. I immediately discontinued his use of Advair when I went online and looked at the side effects. Unfortunately I had to talk to the nurses at my clinic several times to explain to them that I was CERTAIN an 8 lb weight gain was not normal and that I was no longer giving this medication to my son, no matter what our GP said. It seems that the clinical trials didn't show weight gain as a significant symptom, but later reporting by doctors has shown it. Doctors don't seem to have this information!

I'm a 37 year old female and have severe asthma and allergies and have used pregnisone on and off for 30 years. I believe I am the poster child for the long term side effects. My immune system is shot to the point that my normal medicines for asthma (ventolin, advair) and allergies (tylenol sinus, claritan, visine A) and ezcema (elidel, hydrocortisone, etc. - - NOTHING works!

In the past 6 months, I have developed various infections that the doctors have not been able to identify. My eyes are swollen and red with large amount of white/yellow secretions. Vaginal secretions. Face swollen. Skilled covered in a rash with ezcema out of control. Sharp pains in my back and stomach. Constant asthma. Abnormal hair growth. It is to the point that it is impossible to function and each doctor just wants to prescribe more pregnisone. I feel as if my body is a walking time bomb and it is so full of all the cortisone from over the years and has just decided no more.

I admit that I too readily believed in the doctors when they would rapidly prescribe the pregnisone. Only now am I paying attention to the long term side effects.

Has anyone had tests done to test their immune system and other organs for damage? Thanks and best to our pregnisone club.

OMG, I thought it was just me! I went to my doctor because of an ongoing infection and the worst cough I've ever had. I was given Levaquin 750mg and a steriod shot. Then it went down hill from there. My ankles began to swell, then my fingers and hands. I had a very hard time using my hands to open my back door and it even hurt to use my stapler at work! Then other joints began to hurt, like my neck and my knees. It was painful to get up or sit down. I tried to get up and get ready for work one morning, but I just stood in the shower crying because my entire body hurt. I went to an emergency clinic and asked them to start doing lab work to find out what's going on. I felt like I was 90 years old and had been suddenly stricken with menopause, lyme disease, fibromyalgia,arthritis and migraine. All the lab came back normal. I went back to the doctor that gave me the drug (handful of samples) and was referred to a pain and joint center. I am still trying to recover from this drug. .

This past week has in large part been spent under the painful influence of a potent and fairly common prescription drug that I didn't need to take. I want you to be aware of the possibility that this kind of thing happening to you or your loved one. We see the prescription drug commercials and their disclaimers on TV and are amused that anyone would take a drug with a long list of horrible side effects for some rather minor ailment. And you always think it happens to some one else.

On Sept. 19, I went to a local dermatologist to have her look at a very small rash on my arm and a small cyst on my back. She extracted the "skin cells" in my back after using a local anesthetic and sent me home with 2 prescriptions, one for a lotion for the rash and, I thought, an antibiotic that the doctor had mentioned for the extraction. I had only the prescription for the oral medicine filled as I had also been given a small sample size of lotion and the area of rash was no more than a 2 inch square size.

On the 20th I began taking the pills from a large card with the dosage marked for day and night doses in decreasing amounts. By the the 25th I was jittery and miserable from the inside out, could hardly breathe, or talk, my muscles were all tight and tense and hurting, my stomach was upset but I could hardly get enough food, I was completely without any energy at all. By the next day it was all I could do to get out of bed and shower, I certainly could not work or function normally, in addition to the other symptoms, my body ached, head ached, not to mention how mean I felt. I stopped taking the meds after the morning dose on the 27th, when it occurred to me that this was not the result of "stress" from taking my mother on a 6 hour trip to see her brother in hospice care on the 23rd for two days. The next day I called the pharmacy to find out what I had been prescribed and they told me Dexpak, steroid. The symptoms have continued through the next days and have begun to slowly and slightly subside, but as I write this on the 30th I am still far from feeling like myself and my eyes have become cloudy, making it difficult to see. I made it to church this morning, but that's all I have been able to do since last week.

It is astounding to see the list of extreme reasons to prescribe this potent drug especially for a tiny rash on an otherwise very healthy person. Then the list of side effects, of which I have virtually every one, frightens me more and my concern is that they may not all be reversable. There are several things I didn't do along this path of taking the meds that I could have avoided all this if I had not just trusted that they were antibiotics (which I never got), and actually read the material they give you with the prescription when you pick it up. Even so, it begs the question, why would this have been prescribed in the first place?

Wierd. I have taken Bactrim before and had no incicent - that I can recall. Well, today I was diagnosed with Bladder infection - took 1st dose of bactrim and about twenty minutes later (as i'm walking into a restaurant), everything starts going haywire. First wicked itching, flushing of the skin - then eyes turn BLOOD red, face swells, tongue starts feeling fat and hurts - heart is pounding. I freak out - and throw some money on the table for a glass of tea - that I didn't drink - Husband rushes me back to clinic - as we both think I am having aniphilactic reaction. Terrified. Never experienced anything like it - my face swole up on the way - horrible. Wanted to scratch my skin off. Palms of hands, feet everything feels like its "asleep" and has needle like sensations. They ask if my airway is tightening (!) not yet? They give me a "steroid" shot (generic term I guess), and a Zyrtec. I start calming down on the way home - itching subsides and then chest pains begin - now I think i'm having a heart attack. I don't know if the trembling is from Bactrim or terror. I crawl into bed and start bawling - cuz I feel like I almost died. It scared the shit out of me. Husband paces and wrings hands. Now, hours later - I have sweats, fatigue (dramatic day), and heartrate is still elevated. Left tonsil hurts when I swallow. Yikes.

I must add my recent experience with Prednisone to this forum:

I have been suffering from constant lower back pain and a torn shoulder injury (rotator cuff) for the last several years. A week ago I got a slight case of Poison Ivy. My doctor gave me Prednisone - starting at 60 mgs. a day, tapering down to 10 over 12 days. I was unsure as to whether I wanted to be on a steroid , especially after reading some of the testimonies here at this forum. But I went ahead and took it. I must say this has been one of the most amazing experiences for me.
Not only did my Poison Ivy immediately begin to go away, but lo and behold, practically ALL my back pain and shoulder pain went away. I also found myself with this amazing positive mental attitude. I began to get up and enjoy my job everyday (normally I am somewhat depressed and stressed out). It was such a major change for the better - I feel like I have been living the resurrection!! Yet I know it is only due to absence of pain and increased energy brought on by the Prednisone. I feel like a happier, younger version of myself. Prednisone has even helped me sleep better! So, evidently, for some people, prednisone is a wonder-drug.
I did note a very slight manic edge at times, but never unmanageable and always very positive. As soon as I decrease the dose, the pain and inflammation in my back and shoulder starts to return. What a shame that this drug causes osteoporosis and other long-term affects. I wish I could stay on it forever!!

I have had a severe case of polymyalgia rheumatica and was initially put on 60 mg of prednisone a day. It was wonderful! Within hours my pain level dropped almost in half. From there the pain has gradually improved even more. I went to 40 mg per day to 20 mg per day to 15 mg per day. Have been on the 15 mg for 2 months now and want off as soon as possible. Yes, I too have the moon face, camel hump, slight weight gain, nausea, digestive problems, cramps, depression, etc. Not fun! My question is - does anyone experience burning/stinging in their face, arms and legs from the prednisone? I wonder if it is the polymyalgia rheumatica or if this is a side effect from the steroid. Thanks for your comments.

Prednisone is a catabolic steroid, not anabolic which increases muscle, so people should know that continued use over time will literally break down and destroy muscle tissue. Without muscle, a person has no way of even standing more than a few seconds and could suffer many falls.....these falls are worse on the prednisone patient because prednisone also effects bone density and multiple disc fractures can result, leaving the person wheelchair bound.

How do I know? That's what happened to my mom. Also, if you are in a nursing home and contact scabies, forget about ever getting rid of them prednisone supresses the immune system so it can't kill them off, even with all the meds and treatments out there for scabies. Again, my mom.

Hi, I was on Prednisone for a little over a month for Crohn's disease. I had minor side effects while taking it: couldn't sleep, no patience, dehydrated, dry eyes. It is the side effects from AFTER stopping prednisone that concern me. I''ve been off Prednisone for 3 weeks and I think I am losing my hair and getting acne-that I didn't have before or during taking Prednisone. Anyone experience side effects that started after stopping the med?

I took one pill of this crap, one pill. Woke up at 2:00 the next morning and with lips that made me look like Bucky the Chipmunk. Then the itching! It's been a week and I still itch. 1 PILL! No - no - no, was on Toprol for years but there was concern with it's combo with my Paxil. I finally had to go on a steroid series to try to control the itching; terrible!

low in side efects,unlike dianabol, the definition you see in up to 2 1/2 weeks is amazing......does stimulate hunger a bit but doesnt make u look swollen in the face........doesnt cause any mental effects and builds your streath up at a decent rate........basicly used for size or a secondary steroid to be used wit deca,anadrol 50,d-bol , or any other bulking steroid

My previous post is for the cortio-steroid, NOT the birth control, which is Depo PROVERA. I have all kinds of things to say about Depo Provera (which I was on and regret being on), and none of them are good, except for the convenience.

I got poison ivy for the first time. It wasn't bad like my brother, but lotion didn't help. I wanted out of my misery, so I went to the doctor and he gave me the option of a steroid three times a day for two weeks, or the shot (which would give me relief in a day or two, instead of towards the end). I took the shot, and it worked WELL. I also had some energy, and it helped my sinuses, which constantly feel swollen inside (despite prescription medication). I'd say if you get poison ivy, get yourself out of misery by getting the shot.

My husband took Amoxycillin after a Root Canal- Woke up with his face swollen like a balloon, the following day swollen all over with light occasional itching, fatigue and a slight pinkish skin rash. Immediately stopped Amoxycillin and took Benadryl, drank ALOT of water and went in for a steroid shot. I'm posting this the evening before shot. I certainly hope we begin to see some relief.

August 20th 2007

I have been taking Armidex since May 2006. I have stopped taking it
as of August 06, 2007. Armidex is a steroid, and my body has
signifigantly changed due to the Armidex. It also was making me
very tierd. I feel 100% better being off this drug. If anyone else has had
the experience with Armidex please email me. Thank you.

I recieved this shot on July 2, 2007 for a frozen right shoulder and on July 9th a period began that lasted a total of 4 weeks, if was the most unusual period I have ever experienced. It would be heavy for 4 days taper off and then begin heavy again, it was like I was having several periods within a 4 week period. I ended up in the Dr's office because it was such a scary experience, I have never had a period for more than 5 days. I had several tests and ended up in the emergency room 2 days before the period ended because I was passing huge clots. I now have to make a decision on whether to have a D&C. I worry each day that I will begin bleeding again and not stop. I also experienced an extreme depressed feeling the next day after the shot and was unable to sleep soundly for about 2 weeks, I have also had headaches charley horse pains in my right calf, and pain in my left jaw. I am also having at least two to three heart palpitations each day. Of course today I cannot prove that the shot has caused all of these symptome and my OBGYN seems to know nothing about the effects of steroid shots, I have not spoken to my ortho dr. about this but they never mentioned any side effects with this drug, I was only asked whether I had diabetes or not before the shot was given. I would strongly recommend that if anyone is contemplating on having this shot to please do your research. After reading all of the comments here and hearing that alot of the symptoms that everyone has had mimic mine, I am convinced that the shot has probably created these adverse efffects which has lead to alot of worry and expensive tests to rule out cancer and other diseases that could have been prevented had I not taken this drug. Whether or not this drug created these effects will lead me without hesitation to never take this drug again and pray that the side effects that I am having are only temporary.

ive taken advair for 3 years,ive had a few side effects including: weight gain, pains in my leg, and tiredness. i dont know if these are from the advair or not. i never had these issues before taking it. i really dont know what to do. if im not on advair i have a hard time breathing and have chest pains. Does breathing better out weigh the side effects that it causes??? i have problems with inflamation and advair seems to work well with that aspect. Is there natural alternatives? HELP!!!