PredniSONE and danger zone

My husband entered the hospital in Nov of 2005 for a surgery. He almost died in the recovery room and from there things went from bad to worse. They put him on a massive dosage of Prednisone. 95 days later we were able to come home. About 2 weeks later he started vomiting and lost all energy. We returned to the hospital and the diagnosis came down as acute adrenal insufficiency. He was pumped full of Prednisone again. From there he went to a very slow wean and he got completely off the drug. No problems. This year he suffered a fall resulting in extreme trauma and blood loss. Back to the hospital where it was determined that his adrenals were again in crisis. Got him all mended and on the way out the door when a nurse decided that he should have a pneumovax. Within 24 hours we were back in the hospital with my husband in critical condition with three life threatening situations. His kidneys were shutting down, his blood pressure was beyond the danger zone (low) and he had cellulitis. Back home again to another slow wean. We are down to 5mg now and are hopeful at the next appointment to be able to start weaning further and back to zero. We were given Dexamethasone Sodium Phosphate for injection in case of any trauma in the future. In addition, my husband now wears a MediAlert bracelet which notes his condition and that in case of accident/trauma Dexamethasone Sodium Phosphate is to be given. Anyone on steroids should register with MediAlert at ******

What everyone needs to know is that the adrenals are responsible for a person's feeling of well being. When you are on a steroid, you need to wean very, very slowly to let your adrenals start doing the job on their own. The reason Prednisone is often prescribed is that it comes in as low of a dosage as 1mg and can be split 4 ways for 1/4th mg per dosage. For those that cannot tolerate Prednisone, Hydrocortisone is available. 10 mg of Hydrocortisone is the same as 2.5 mg of Prednisone. Hydrocortisone can also be split.