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        Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies >> prednisone
        
(Message started by: alan on Mar 16^th, 2008, 10:17pm)

Title: prednisone
Post by alan on Mar 16^th, 2008, 10:17pm

prednisone (60mg/day for 10 days) usually works for me. This time I stayed at 60mg for 22 days because every time I dropped to 45mg I got hit. Finally tapered down to zero but getting hit twice/day and am almost out of Trex. I'm going to start the full prednisone again tomorrow, wondering if any of you have experience taking this much prednisone for this long (I'm also taking 360mg verapamil but doesnt seem to be helping). any thoughts would be appreciated

Title: Re: prednisone
Post by lennycohen on Mar 17^th, 2008, 6:40am

Perhaps start higher - 80 mgs for 2-3 days, then 60 for 2, then 40 for 2, etc, down for a full taper to see if that breaks the cycle, maybe 60 isn't a high enough dose to break your cycle - long term that high certainly isn't good. I think that Dr. Rozen's paper that Bob posts the link to says to start at 80.

Also, perhaps upping your Verapamil at the same time to get more preventative on board ---

That's what comes to my mind

Title: Re: prednisone
Post by Bob_Johnson on Mar 17^th, 2008, 8:50am

http://www.plainboard.com/ch/chtherapy.pdf

Here is a link to read and print and take to your doctor. It describes preventive, transitional, abortive and surgical treatments for CH. Written by one of the better headache docs in the U.S. (2002)

Title: Re: prednisone
Post by Guiseppi on Mar 17^th, 2008, 12:09pm

Great advice above, I'll just add that whatever you do, work with your doctor. All meds come with risks, it's why you can't buy em over the counter at Wal Mart! Never increase or decrease your dosing without the advice of your doc. Wishing you some pain free time soon.

Guiseppi

Title: Re: prednisone
Post by Stinger on Mar 17^th, 2008, 2:45pm

Pred rarely works for me, but this time I think it has. In the past, my doc has put me on for a week and when I went back, since it didn't change anything, he put me on for another two weeks and then, if I remember correctly he kept me on it for about two months. None of that worked that time, but the point is, he kept me on it for a long time. It bloats you up, makes you nervous and makes you eat a lot. I know some people who have been on it for many months at a time. I hate the feeling it gives me, but........

Title: Re: prednisone
Post by E-Double on Mar 17^th, 2008, 5:28pm

DO NOT START TAKING PREDNISONE AGAIN ON YOUR OWN NOR SHOULD YOU MESS WITH A TAPER WITHOUT DOC GUIDING YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is supposed to be a transitional med used while your preventative is titrating to a therapeutic level.

Your dosage is pretty low.

I'm not a doctor just your everyday dude with the same head pain.

Print out what Bob gave you and Make sure that your doctor KNOWS it.

Good luck

Title: Re: prednisone
Post by Crappy on Mar 18^th, 2008, 5:49am

I begged a neuro for some relief, and he gave me a 50-day infusion of 1gram prednisone, followed by a taper of pills.

Headaches disappeared on the second day of IVs, but my legs started to hurt like HELL and I couldn't walk. He ended up cancelling the taper after the IVs ended. However, after that (when the headaches returned 2 days later) each ha caused severe pain to shoot down my arm and leg on my pain side. That pain was as bad as the CH pain, and he seemed clueless about it.

The arm/leg pain has gone mostly away, but if I overexert myself on any given day, then when my evening/night CH attacks hit I'm holding my eye, squeezing my arm, and rubbing my leg. Three times the fun for the same low price.

So I second what E-Double said - don't screw with prednisone without your doctor's guidance and permission. I wish to God I'd never touched it, but I guess my experience must be rare or prednisone wouldn'tt be so common here.

Title: Re: prednisone
Post by E-Double on Mar 18^th, 2008, 7:06am

Several people have devloped avascular necrosis or tissue damage due to over/misuse.

It really is meant to be used as a short term med

Title: Re: prednisone
Post by alan on Mar 18^th, 2008, 4:38pm

Thanks for the help guys. Taking preed this long does worry me. My doc back home said up to 1 month should be OK - my first course was 3 weeks at 60mg/day (in the past pred usually effective for me using 10 day course then taper I'm a little desperate because I'm traveling thru South America with my 3 small kids and we have 1 month left and no imitrex (imitex PILLS cost $15/piece and of course take 1 hour for any relief at all, still its all I can get down here. So I started a 2nd course of pred yesterday, thinking 80mg 2 days, 70mg 2 days, 60mg 2 days then taper down. NO headache today but as soon as I begin taper I'll probably get hit again.
Note to all: do not leave North America without your full kit!! (I had needles stuck at customs in Ecuador for 2 weeks- ended up abandoning them ($500)

Again thanks guys, I couldn't survive without this site