Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Not having a good day(s)

Jeff - when my joints are bad, the pain often spreads to the surrounding muscles. So that wouldn't be in your head.

Steroids work quickly but not overnight, Jeffery. How much are you taking?

Its a standard medrol pack. 4 mg pills starting with six pills and working down to one. I felt slightly better the first day, but now I'm back to where I was.

Sounds more like you need to be on the 24mg and stay there for a while. How rapidly does the dose go down?

I've never had a medrol pack. My doc would prescribe 5mg pills and 1mg pills of prednisone and we'd plan a schedule of slow reduction from that combo. It sounds as though your reduction would be 4mg at a time which sounds pretty quick.

So sorry you're feeling so ick.

sorry things are so bad. try not to worry about work, if you are sick, you are sick. take the time off if you need to. let the boss know that if he lets you take care of you, you'll be back and better able to do your job faster, then if you keep trying to work while sick. not that that will always work, but if you are sick, then you really do have to take care of you. and reading how your boss wants you to predict when you'll feel better; i had a boss a long time ago who asked me, "so, when are we going to solve this problem." when my gastritis was so bad i couldn't even think straight. you're right, they have no idea how it works, how you can't predict. but if he wants you to, maybe err on the side of caution, tell him longer than you think, then if you can go in when you said you couldn't, maybe a pleasant surprise to them? if people are getting more than they expected vs less..........

i agree, sounds like you need more than this medrol dose pack. i was on it (the 4 mg pills) in august, and its really a pretty low dose of pred.

wendy, it works like this:

Directions for Medrol Dosepak: 1st day: 2 tablets before breakfast, 1 tablet after lunch and after supper, and 2 tablets at bedtime.

2nd day: 1 tablet before breakfast. 1 tablet after lunch and after supper, and 2 tablets at bedtime.

3rd day: 1 tablet before breakfast, after lunch, after supper and at bedtime.

4th day: 1 tablet before breakfast, after lunch and at bedtime.

5th day: 1 tablet before breakfast and at bedtime.

6th day: 1 tablet before breakfast.

from what i've read, very safe, doesn't give adrenal glands time to adjust, don't have to worry about that issue coming off the pred like you do when you taking it longer. at leas that's my interpretation of why 6 days.

but they do have dose packs where the pills are more than 4 mg of pred.

and jeff, if you need to be on it longer, then maybe you should be. though you have to be careful coming off the pred then, i'm sure wendy can tell you all about that, as can others on here. just do what you have to do to feel better, ok?

jeff- yes, i'd talk the doc that this is not working well enough for you. i'd even call the answering service over the weekend, talk to the doctor on call.