When to increase steroids.

Hi Everyone. I’d love to hear from you as to when do you decide to increase your dose of steroids for a flare-up. I am on two Prednisolone tablets per day but I don’t want to overuse them. What symptoms do you get that you feel the need to take eight tablets per day for seven days please? Best wishes and thanks to you all.

What’s the strength of those tablets? Mine are 20mg, which would mean 160mg if taking 8. I can only take them in extreme circumstances because of bad reactions to even 5mg daily.

See my question has been answered re dosage. I am on 10 mgs per day i.e half a 20 mg tablet. Just recently was upped to 60mgs per day by doctor as even though I had had the flu jab I still caught a milder version of it, stayed on the high dose for a week and then tapered down to my 10 mgs over a week. I would now up my dose to 40mgs if I felt unwell especially if my coughing increased. Would contact a doctor before I went up to 60mgs again.
Seeing pulmonologist next Monday, almost certain he will up the dosage again. Flu virus has badly affected me blood oxygen wise.

Hi deanne,
I have standby medication consisting of antibiotics and steroids which I take if I get a chest infecton. The prednisolone is 30mg per day for a week. The antibiotic is doxycycline, 200mg day one then 100mg per day for the next six days. I’ve not heard of taking steroids for COPD as part of normal treatment.

i only take 8 when i have chest infection for 7 day only

The poster has said they are taking steroids for an exacerbation, not as part of general maintenance. It is however common for severe and very severe copd sufferers to take a daily steroid dose on a permanent basis.