About donna lloid Expertise i can answer questions concerning medications including prescription, herbal & vitamins. also regarding surgeries connected with ibd (inflammatory bowel disease). can answer about ibd in one or more family members. treatments, recovery, coping & how to live a productive & functioning life with this disease.
Experience i was diagnosed 36 years ago at time of first surgery. i have had 10 major surgeries in total, 5 of these were bowel resections. my father, grandmother & niece all died from this disease. following 8 years of being a bedridden patient who was sent home to die in 1965, i began to study this affliction, and began my education on this subject with dr. burrell chron's reserch at mt. sinai hospital in 1958 when his young grandson was stricken with this disease. i have continued to research & study ibd in order to further my education and my ability to cope with and to survive this disease. i am asked repeatedly year after year by various doctors, nurses and the general public how i am able to look healthy and accomplish what i do in life. i am also asked by almost every doctor that has ever examined me or my x-rays, "what do you know that the rest of us don't"? or "how have you managed to live so long and seem so healthy"? my answer is always one and the same, i tell them that i educated myself in order to save my own life, and that i do not agree with what most of the medical experts insist is the only way to treat me. i also believe that many of the medicines and treatments that doctors learn in medical school such as putting patients on massive cortisone drugs and insisting that drugs must be taken daily for life as the only option to staying alive. i have no doubt that if i had continued to go with these treatments that i would have succumbed to ibd by the time i was 26 or 10 years into treatment. i will be 53 years old in september of 2001 and i can do more every year that goes by.
Expert: donna lloid Date: 7/30/2001 Subject: prednisone
Question Donna,
I am 28yrs with a horrible disease called rheumotoid arthritis. I am very concerned with my health right now. I am 21weeks pregnant, and I am taking 40mg per day of prednisone. I spoke with my rheumotologist and now after 5 months he is stating he never told me to take so much. Only 20mg per day. I would never go and take more of this medicine than told too. I don't even want to be on this. I have been on this for 3yrs. I don't want this medicine to affect the birth of my newborn. Help me and tell me what to do... If need be I will stop taking prednisone as we speak. My health means nothing compared to my baby. I am very upset and worried. Help me to lead me in the right direction. Nobody can see to give me a straight answer.
Very worried......
Answer dear linda,
prednisone therapy in high doses should only be used when a condition is flaring or is critical. the only time a patient should be subjected to the risks and adverse effects of prednisone is when it is the "less of two evils" or in when the the ailment is causing more danger than the large doses of prednisone can induce.
the list is too long to cite here but the main ones that come to mind are potassium loss, osteoporosis, vertabral compression fractures, glaucoma & ect.
as for usage in pregnancy, there have not been adaquate human reproduction studies
done with corticosteroids, the use of these drugs in pregnancy & nursing mothers requires that the possible benifits of the drugs be wieghed against the potential hazards to the mother, embryo or fetus. infants born of mothers who have recieved substantial doses of corticosteroids during pregnancy should be carefully observed for signs of hypoadrenalism.
this is very important linda, you cannot stop taking prednisone "cold turkey" or abruptly. if this were done it would be a trauma similar to someone ripping an adrenalin gland from your body, with the potential to cause stroke, convulsions ect.
my personal advice to you linda is to begin the process of weaning off of this drug starting tomorrow. if now taking 40mg per/day then reduce it to 30mg tomorrow, take 15 mg in the morning and 15 mg in the evening or 10-12 hrs apart. continue this dose for 5 days then drop the dose to 20mg per/day in two-10mg doses, continue the 20mg dosage for the next 4 days, then drop to 10mg per day taken in 5mg dose twice a day for 3 days (if your tablets are 10's split them or request the 5 mg tabs) then go to one 5mg tablet a day in morning for 2 days then 5 mg tablet every other day until third time taken on the alternate day then you can stop completely.
a doctor shouldn't consider prednisone as an option for you during pregnancy except as a life saving effort.
following the birth of your baby if you find it necessary to go back onto the predisone I would request that my doctor consider ADT (alternate day therapy). this is a dosing regiman of twice the daily amount is taken every other morning. the purpose of this is to provide a person requiring prednisone for long term treatment the benificial effects of cortociods while minimizing certain undesirable effects.
and if the doctor puts you on a regular regiman of prednisone the large dosage should only be long enough to get problem under control, then it should be lowered to a much lower dosage for maintenance purpose.
I hope this information is benifical to you linda. please let me know how things are and feel free to contact me with questions anytime. I will always be straight-foward and promise that I will only give answers that I have researched and verified properly.
good luck to you & your baby linda
sincerely
donna
