Hi nanny10
Just correcting my sentence the dose it was meant to read sometimes is for over a week depending how many soluable tablets is given with the prescription given!
Hello Karen, my doctors have me taking Prednisone daily, and for the last three years. I have been taking it because they use to have me taking another drug called, Theophylline, but I had to wean off of Theophylline, which landed me in the hospital for two weeks, due to making my heart beat too fast. In the past, I had suffered from Congestive Heart Failure, so my heart has a tendency to beat faster than the normal, and Theophylline, increased the beats all the more. But, it did seem that they replaced Theophylline with another drug, which is the steroid called, Prednisone. I've been taking it daily for three years now. Theophylline treats symptoms of asthma, and other lung problems, such as emphysema, and on-going bronchitis. This medicine is a bronchodilator. I am not sure if it replaces the job of Prednisone, but please ask your doctor about it. Now that my heart seems much stronger, since my Heart Failure occurred three years ago, I may ask my doctor to put me back on it again.
Forgot to add....my doctors informed me that the reason they have me taking Prednisone daily is due to it being a bronchodialator and also gives respiratory muscles strength. This is what they tell me, but I want to go off it, and it has to be done by a doctor. I want to be weaned off of it, just to see if I can live comfortably without it. So, Theophylline, I could be wrong, but in my opinion, may be a drug that can replace Prednisone, but ask doctor first.
I don't think it's all inhalers, only the Symbicort because it's cortisone, but it's definitely essential to rinse thoroughly at least twice and spit out the water and DON'T SWALLOW so maybe that's why you kept getting thrush. It does tell you all this in the manufacturer's info sheet.
I hope whatever has replaced it for you is helping
Inhaled steroids do not enter your blood stream so another reason it is very important not to swallow after use is so no steroid gets into your stomach and then able to enter your bloodstream, although it would only be a very small amount it would add up over time if repeatedly swallowed. Inhaled steroids have been used for decades without showing adverse side effects. Hope you do well with your new inhaler.
Hi I'm new to this site and was wondering if anyone could help. My mother 65 years old
has copd for the last 5 years, 2 years ago she ended up in icu with lung infection and phomonia. Since then she's always been taking steroids, she's now trying to tapper them down but she gets terrible fatigue and now her ankles are swollen, she can walk but not to far, some days and better then others depending in weather, she was on 40mg of steroids a day, she been tampering down to only 15mg a day but the fatigue is too much, any help would be great, thanks
Hi robert any steroids should be taken in accordance with that prescribed by your Mother's doctor including any tapering off.
COPD is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Some people whose COPD is severe, that is their lung damage is severe may be prescribed a maintenance dose of steroids to help them breathe easier, if your Mother's symptom is only fatigue when she tapers off it may just be because she has been on the steroids for so long, either way any tapering off the medicine needs to be under her doctors instruction as would be taking them and the dose prescribed. Perhaps she has already been thus advised.
Many with COPD get lung infections and some also get pneumonia some recover from the lung infections and pneumonia and may not need a maintenance dose of steroids.
Chat with your Mother, ask her maybe what the doctor recommended if she is vague on that she probably needs to go back to her doctor for guidance.
Best wishes V
Sorry to have to disagree, William. When in hospital with exacerbations or when infections have hit over the past 8 years, my dose of Prednisolone has been 6 x 5mg tablets per day for a week or more thence gradually reducing to nothing. My doctor recently told me that this constant on / off & up / down dose was not good for me so has prescribed a "maintenance dose" of 1 x 5mg per day (... and a bone density scan as COPD is known to be deterimental to bone health). Time will tell if this works ! (my FEV is 15%)
Hi emmgee, its the prednisolone that is detrimental to bone health long term not COPD itself, its the steroids that often people with COPD need to take. Oral form especially so.
Hope you are finding the maintenance dose helpful to you, keeping fingers crossed you will be able to improve on your FEV percentage or at most stabilise at that level.
Best wishes V.
or at least stabilise at that level, I had meant to say
This post is over a year old, but answering the original post by Nanny10.
COPD in short means Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
Not everyone with COPD will need to take steroids all the time. Such medication is prescribed by the patient's doctor, it is certainly not the case that every patient will require them or have them prescribed 'all the time'.
There are different doses for prescribed steroid medication and this is prescribed by a consultant or doctor in regard to what symptom / diagnosis is being treated.
Patients requiring a maintenance dose (daily dose or other) often are prescribed a much lower dose than a patient who is being treated for a lung infection for instance.
Some patients with severe lung damage may require a maintenance dose but even this is not fix in stone. Two people with 24% lung function for instance, one may require the daily / maintenance dose and the other may not. One may require oxygen and the other may not.
Hope this helps to clarify, some may need the medication daily but not others.
Very true ... and nicely put !
Yup we're all different.
I know jude asked this question over a year ago, but as this post has resurfaced again recently I am noticing content which I had not noticed before.
">>>>>>
Jude said to Brenda: Prednisone can suppress the immune system: I don't understand the advantage of a medication which increases you chance of infection when your lung function is already compromised by COPD - can anyone explain this please? <<<<<< "
Below is my understanding:
it may help to compare it to when the body produces histamine when it reacts to pollen, the symptoms we get from hayfever are those produced by the body producing histamine in an attempt to expel the irritant, hence runny nose, sneezing etc. So we take anti histamine to suppress the immune response that produces histamine.
This is what happens when we have a lung infection, the symptoms produced are those by the body's immune system to try and rid itself of the infection, or to bring awareness that something is not right and needs attention. Coughing, increased mucus to cough up. Where there is only lung inflammation, more difficulty breathing, tiredness etc, the body produces these symptoms as a communication mechanism. Steroids, treat inflammation (an immune system response), helps with the breathing and the Anti biotics clear the infection and stop bacteria multiplying in the lungs thus.
So when the bodies immune system reacts and produces symptoms we use medicines to suppress the immune system so that inflammation and other symptoms are calmed and infection is halted.
You may understand that Cancer patients undergoing chemo the medicine suppresses the immune system to help the drug treat the cancer.
That is my understanding of the reason why the immune system needs supressing in certain circumstances and the reasons why drugs help in doing so.
I was diagnosed of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in 2012 at the age of 63. I had been a heavy smoker, my symptoms started out with dry cough and shortness of breath, i ended up in the hospital, on a ventilator. I should have known it was coming, but like most smokers, thought it would never happen to me. My COPD got significantly worse and unbearable because of my difficulty catching breath. Last year, i started on a natural COPD Herbal therapy from NewLife Herbal Clinic, i read a lot of positive reviews from patients who used the treatment and i immediately started on it. I had great relief with this herbal treatment. I breath very much better now, no case of shortness of breath or chest tightness since treatment. Visit NewLife Herbal Clinic website ww w. newlifeherbalclinic. com. This COPD treatment is a miracle!!