PredniSONE and adrenal crisis

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!

In June I found out I had actue renal failure. One of the many medications I was given was prednisone. After a few weeks I grew so weak, tired and in a lot of pain. I even had to take a medical leave from work(4 months).
I was told to expect the moon face, hunchback, the acne..However, my sypmptoms worsened to point I didn't want to eat(lost 30 lbs) could hardly move and had to be hospitalized(almost went on dialysis). They flushed me out for a week at the hospital and avoided dialysis.
Once out of the hospital I proceeded to keep the weight off, but the side effects just mounted. I had thrush in the mouth(the worst feeling), sleeplessness, I had every side effect listed and I mean all with the exception of hallucinations and depression. The miracle was that what I was expecting weight gain, moon face did not happen.
Around September my doctor started weaning me off prednisone b/c I told him I cant take it anymore. Wouldn't you know it the minute I started getting weaned off the medication I got the moon face and acne. I cant beleive how much acne I have and the moon face and extra chin that came along with it are not cute. In 3 days I gained 10lbs and feel like I'm gainiing everyday. This might bring on the depression that has yet to occur. Why is this happening now that I'm being weaned. I started at 80mg a day and now I'm down to 30mg and next week down to 20mg.
I know this drug did its job and I pray that I dont have to be on it at all once the weaning process is over, but this is hell. I really feel doctors should tell you everything that you can expect. I didnt know enough about this drug(I know there is the internet I should have used it) and had I known then what I know now I seriously might have asked for some alternatives. This drug may be a miracle in the medical community, but for those of us who have to take it, its hell. Does anyone know how long it will take for the moon face, acne, and weight gain to go away?

I am 19 years old and I recently was taken off of it 2 years ago when I switched doctors. Prior to the switch I had been on it for 16 years. I prob have some of the worse side effects. Because it causes an increase in appetite I ate but I didn't eat all the time, and I ended up gaining over 100lbs. I have a black-brown ring around my neck and for the longest time I thought it was dirt that wouldn't come off so sometimes I scrubed my neck sometimes to the point that it was raw.I have bad acne on my back and its just horrible.I cry every single night because of the side effects.I just want to know if anyone on here can help me.

PLEASE REPLY! ok i wrote on this board about a month ago, and i was complaining about all the horrible side effects i was having.....however things have gotten much much worse since then, and i must admit that i have been bad. very bad. i am secretly winging myself off of the steroids b/c I cannot handle the depression and not being myself anymore... I've been on Prednisone for a year now and started winging myself from 15mg when I last wrote on here to now 10 mg... my hair is falling out in HUGE clumps, and I am NOT overexaggerating when I say I am going bald... does anyone know if this could be from tapering the drug, or would you say it is probably because of my condition possibly returning from tapering the drug too low???? I just want to know if IMMENSE hair loss is affiliated with steroids...I have not seen anyone else mention anything.

I've took a very high dosage of prednisone for 6 years, from the age of ten years old. 17 years later, i still have an extreme moon face. The only thing that has ever helped me was a facial exerciser (a microcurrent devise), but those results can be hard an expensive to maintain. As anyone else ever had a moon face that wouldnt go away even after stopping their prednisone usage after a long period of time? Does anyone have any advice for me, on how i can finally get rid of this horrible extreme moonface? my face and all my facial features are swollen, including my eyelids, this has been goin on for years. I also have suffered for years from severe chronic diarrhea from an illeostomy reversal. Please help me.