Hi! I am 29 years old and have had asthma since i was young. As i...

Hi! I am 29 years old and have had asthma since i was young. As i entered high school i had very rare exacerbations but around 4 years back attacks became more frequent. I visited my doctor and he advised me 40mg of Prednisone a day for 5 days (20mg in the morning and 20mg at night). He mentioned that this was safe and no tapering was needed for this short burst. So every time i start having exacerbations i just follow this regimen. I have had no tapering or withdrawal symptoms and i can breath very well even after the Prednisone is off. Recently, i had an exacerbation as the New Year started. So i started my regimen again on Jan1. But after 5 days, my symptoms were not relieved yet. It seemed like my asthma, triggered by an acute bout of Bronchitis, was worse than before. So i continued this regimen until 12 days. I was taught before that as taking Prednisone approached 2 weeks, it would be wise to taper. So on day 13 - 15, i took 30mg of Prednisone per day (15mg in AM, 15mg in PM). On day 16 - 18, 20 mg per day (10mg in AM, 10mg in PM). On day 19 - 21, 10mg per day (5mg in AM and 5mg in PM). On the 22nd day, i had 5mg once a day only. The next day, i woke up very drowsy, with muscle and joint pains, dizzy and light headed. But i just fought it and went on my day feeling sooo out of it. And at night, i just felt chest tightness. I again had difficulty of breathing unrelieved by around 3 puffs of my inhaler (which was a combination of a long acting bronchodilator and an inhaled corticosteroid) which was also good for acute events of asthma. This provided no relief until i took a total of 15mg of Prednisone again. The next morning, on day24, i felt better. I tool 10mg thinking i could maintain myself on 20mg a day. But as the day progressed, as still had these joint pains and wheezes and difficulty of breathing. So a night i took 20mg again. I started reading on Prednisone and tapering and noted that these symptoms might have been an adrenal crisis, I haven't consulted my physician yet. But am trying to taper myself off decreasing my dose 5mg every 3 days. I hope i can get back when i learn more. I hope this helped people in some way. Stay healthy everyone!