I feel like a squirrel on crack!

I've been on 50 mg of Prednisone, plus 8 times the usual dose of my steroid inhaler.

I'm jittery. I'm shaky. And I'm a bundle of raw energy.

Unfortunately I don't have the breathing capacity to take advantage of it!! If it wasn't for my chest infection and breathing difficulty right now, I'd be able to run a marathon!

Tomorrow I start tapering down the dose of Prednisone and hopefully in 2 weeks I'll be back to my lazy, non-energetic self!

I've been there too many times. It's usually a starting dose of 60 mg of Prednisone for me. No sleep, mood swings, etc. I totally understand. It's awful. I hope things get better. A few things I found helped me:

1) An antacid, or even better, a proton pump inhibitor to tackle the heartburn and upset stomach prednisone can cause.

2) L-Theanine supplements OR lots of caffeine free green tea to help with the anxiety and jitters. A step further would be a mild low-dose sedative, like perhaps 2mg of Diazepam taken twice a day, but your doctor would have to decide if that's for you. If you're having breathing problems, he/she might not feel comfortable prescribing anything that acts as a CNS depressant as it could potentially adversely affect your breathing. An alternative similar to L-Theanine would be Valerian root. L-Theanine and Valerian root in the states are non-prescription, I don't know how things are in Canada. As with any pills whether they be prescription or not, ask your doctor if it is safe for you to take as there can be drug interactions or health consequences specific to you and/or your medications.

3) Try to spread out the prednisone as much as possible over 24 hours. If you take it all at once, it makes the side effects worse. If this causes insomnia, then you're better off taking it in the morning unfortunately.

4) Don't let the facial puffiness or water retention get to you. It's the meds and will go away once it's over. You can watch your sodium intake to lessen the effect a little bit though.

5) You're going to get hungrier than a teenager smoking marijuana while watching the food network. This is one of Prednisone's dangers. I've gained HUGE amounts of weight from prednisone over time (over 100 lbs). It is a pita to lose it afterwards. I'm still losing some of it. You have to be careful! You want to eat a ton, so do it - but eat high volume low calorie foods like salads whenever possible.

6) Watch your attitude. If you start to feel depressed, angry, hyper, etc. try to keep in mind that it's the psych side-effects of corticosteroids and try to take a moment to calm down and point that out to yourself.

There's so many more, but ultimately, there are entire websites dedicated to this. The things I mentioned have helped me. You might find more helpful stuff elsewhere on the net though. Get better soon and try to stay positive. It will be over soon enough.

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Also, I just saw the words "chest infection". Did your doctor know this when prescribing prednisone? Even if the answer is yes, maybe call him and double check. My doctors would never prescribe prednisone during an active infection. It weakens your immune system's ability to fight off infection. It's like throwing gasoline and high explosives into a bonfire. Double check with your doctor. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so.

A squirrel on crack

Originally Posted by LawGuy

I've been there too many times. It's usually a starting dose of 60 mg of Prednisone for me. No sleep, mood swings, etc. I totally understand. It's awful. I hope things get better. A few things I found helped me:

1) An antacid, or even better, a proton pump inhibitor to tackle the heartburn and upset stomach prednisone can cause.

2) L-Theanine supplements OR lots of caffeine free green tea to help with the anxiety and jitters. A step further would be a mild low-dose sedative, like perhaps 2mg of Diazepam taken twice a day, but your doctor would have to decide if that's for you. If you're having breathing problems, he/she might not feel comfortable prescribing anything that acts as a CNS depressant as it could potentially adversely affect your breathing. An alternative similar to L-Theanine would be Valerian root. L-Theanine and Valerian root in the states are non-prescription, I don't know how things are in Canada. As with any pills whether they be prescription or not, ask your doctor if it is safe for you to take as there can be drug interactions or health consequences specific to you and/or your medications.

3) Try to spread out the prednisone as much as possible over 24 hours. If you take it all at once, it makes the side effects worse. If this causes insomnia, then you're better off taking it in the morning unfortunately.

4) Don't let the facial puffiness or water retention get to you. It's the meds and will go away once it's over. You can watch your sodium intake to lessen the effect a little bit though.

5) You're going to get hungrier than a teenager smoking marijuana while watching the food network. This is one of Prednisone's dangers. I've gained HUGE amounts of weight from prednisone over time (over 100 lbs). It is a pita to lose it afterwards. I'm still losing some of it. You have to be careful! You want to eat a ton, so do it - but eat high volume low calorie foods like salads whenever possible.

6) Watch your attitude. If you start to feel depressed, angry, hyper, etc. try to keep in mind that it's the psych side-effects of corticosteroids and try to take a moment to calm down and point that out to yourself.

There's so many more, but ultimately, there are entire websites dedicated to this. The things I mentioned have helped me. You might find more helpful stuff elsewhere on the net though. Get better soon and try to stay positive. It will be over soon enough.

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Also, I just saw the words "chest infection". Did your doctor know this when prescribing prednisone? Even if the answer is yes, maybe call him and double check. My doctors would never prescribe prednisone during an active infection. It weakens your immune system's ability to fight off infection. It's like throwing gasoline and high explosives into a bonfire. Double check with your doctor. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so.

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Yeah, watching the food network while smoking pot is never a good idea... believe me..... Ah, my teen years.... Went by soooo fast.

OMG I love the title of this post!!! I'm still laughing! I think I know how you feel. When I was in the hospital this last time for two weeks, they did an entire day where they like rush-infused caffeine through an IV drip (literally it was dripping like a million drips per minute it was insane). I got soooo shaky, couldn't sit still, couldn't talk, concentrate, I was just totally wired. And let me just say that ADD and caffeine do NOT mix very well... I was completely insane. And of course they made me stay in my room in bed because it was so radical. It helped a little bit with the headache, but dang after being that hyped up I just wanted to die. The next day when they wanted to do the same thing, I put my foot down and was like HE** NO!!!!!! Ain't gonna happen! I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest, it was nuts.

Originally Posted by LawGuy

Also, I just saw the words "chest infection". Did your doctor know this when prescribing prednisone? Even if the answer is yes, maybe call him and double check. My doctors would never prescribe prednisone during an active infection. It weakens your immune system's ability to fight off infection. It's like throwing gasoline and high explosives into a bonfire. Double check with your doctor. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so.

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Oh my doctor is well aware. He used to be a pharmacist before he became a doctor. He's very careful with my medications. I've already finished my antibiotic, and it has a long half life so it's still working its way around. I'm getting better. There is a definite marked improvement from last week Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Friday was the absolute worse. I actually passed out from coughing! That's when I went to the doctor.

Whatever it is that is going around, a number of people at work have been sick. One guy left early on Friday last week because he was sick and didn't come back until yesterday... wuss!

I have Asthma, so when I get sick with something respiratory, it's a coin toss as to how it affects me. Usually whatever it is just hangs around longer than it usually would for someone else, but 3 times in the last year I've been hit with something (H1N1 last spring), that really, really knocked me down. This is my second time on Prednisone in the last year. The first was last spring after I had the H1N1 and just couldn't shake the cough and shortness of breath.

It's nearly midnight and I am not at all sleepy and I took one and a half sleeping pills.

So far today I worked a full shift. Got home, cooked dinner...yes, I cooked. I went out to Safeway to pick up my prescriptions which I need to start tomorrow. While there I picked up 2 canvas bags of groceries plus baking stuff.

This evening I vacuumed the main area around my computer desk/hallway near the door. So much sand gets tracked in on shoes even when they are taken off at the door. It just gets picked up and moved around.

I unpacked my 3 appliances and put them where they need to go. The microwave wasn't as heavy as it looked big. I used a step method to get it up onto the portable dishwasher. Up to a box, up to a chair and finally up to the top of the dishwasher.

I finished cleaning the tops of the counters so that I had places to put the slow cooker and bread maker. Talk about major small kitchen appliance clutter.

So I got down onto the floor and went through the 4 double door cupboards under the counter. I didn't even stop to consider the stuff. I picked it up and if I've never used it, or it hadn't been used in 3 months, it went into a back to a charity. One cupboard had tones of those Lean Cuisine plastic containers. I used to use them to put homemade meals into and then vacuum seal them and freeze them. I never found them large enough. So out they went, along with every empty margarine, yogurt and cottage cheese container that I ever collected to freeze soups in. I've since started using heavy duty freezer bags for freezing soups and stews. Far more freezer space friendly.

Now I have to make 7 trips to the trash cans almost a 1/4 block from my back door. Hopefully by this weekend I'll be able to do that. Sitting and puttering around is one thing. Trying to push out loads of groceries in a grocery cart across a parking lot over ice and snow is entirely another matter.

I'm sitting here knowing I really need to get some sleep, but la da da....da da .... so not tired!!

I might empty out the linen closet aka junk cupboard and get rid of tons of stuff in there. I have piles of towels and things that I haven't used in probably 10 years. Fabric napkins, place mats hair care stuff..... who knows what else. I never use any of it. And I don't even know if any of it's still any good.

I have one small pile of stuff that I'm taking to work tomorrow and putting a note on the things saying "Free to good home!" I did that with some recipe books this morning and they were snapped up less than 5 minutes after I got there. One girl came in and took them all while I was putting my lunch in the fridge.

mismaris777 - not to one up you, lol but if you want to feel REALLY wired, IV Reglan is where you'll find it assuming your like me and many people who get that reaction. About 50% of people get it from what the docs have told me.

They used it on me twice in the ER (separate visits) and both times I just felt like I wanted to sprint, actually it was more like I HAD to sprint. We're talking extreme excitability here. The second time it was so bad that they eventually gave me a decent dose of Ativan via IV to calm me down. Now I insist on Ondansetron instead.

Natalie_ca - ok. I just would have felt awful if I had seen that and not said anything. Just watch out. Often prednisone will mask a fever, so if there is still any active infection going on after your antibiotics, the prednisone will start making your infection worse and to make matters worse, it often suppresses any fever that would let you know something is wrong, so you wouldn't know until you either are on a low dose or off of it, or something bad happens.

I love the title of this post!

I also had to take Prednisone years ago (for a skin problem/allergic reaction to medication). I still remember that the doctor said, "It also can produce feelings of euphoria." Yup. Got a lot of housework and sewing done, I can tell you...

I couldn't resist the title of your post. I had to see what this was all about. I get so much done when I have to take prednisone. I may only take it once every two or three years, but by gosh, my house will sparkle with clean by the time I start tapering.

Originally Posted by LawGuy

mismaris777 - not to one up you, lol but if you want to feel REALLY wired, IV Reglan is where you'll find it assuming your like me and many people who get that reaction. About 50% of people get it from what the docs have told me.

They used it on me twice in the ER (separate visits) and both times I just felt like I wanted to sprint, actually it was more like I HAD to sprint. We're talking extreme excitability here. The second time it was so bad that they eventually gave me a decent dose of Ativan via IV to calm me down. Now I insist on Ondansetron instead.

Natalie_ca - ok. I just would have felt awful if I had seen that and not said anything. Just watch out. Often prednisone will mask a fever, so if there is still any active infection going on after your antibiotics, the prednisone will start making your infection worse and to make matters worse, it often suppresses any fever that would let you know something is wrong, so you wouldn't know until you either are on a low dose or off of it, or something bad happens.

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I have also been on IV reglan- doesn't even compare to the caffeine crap. I was going through all sorts of IV therapies, and reglan was one of them. But nothing compares to the caffeine infusions. weeeeeeeeeeee and now I'm on a triple dose of ativan, so Im feeling loopier than he**. I probably shouldn't be online, I tend to say and do weird things with ativan...

Hm, I didn't feel loopy/hyper or any urgency from reglan. I felt like I was dying. Had the nurse not mumbled and hurriedly added it to my IV when I asked what she was giving me I probably would have kicked her out of my room.

I will remember your metaphor the next time I'm on prednisone. I was on it at the beginning of the school year this year and I was SO productive. I was, however, ridiculously tired because of sleeping an average of 3 hours a night.

I tend to say and do weird things with ativan...

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hahaha. For me it's not Ativan or any of the benzos that make me say and do weird things. They just make me relax and get sleepy. Ambien on the other hand... oh man, I've gotten myself in so much trouble Ambien-dialing friends over the years. At one point I was hiding my cell phone prior to bed hoping that once the Ambien kicked in I wouldn't remember where it was and couldn't do anything stupid. I was hesitant to stop taking it though because it was really helping me sleep. What a problem that was. The problem was that I wouldn't remember having called anybody, but friends would ask, "What the heck were you talking about last night? At one point you asked if penguins have to dry-clean their tux, or if it's machine washable. Do you have a fever?" or stuff like that. After a few people said stuff, I read the side effects and figured it out.

I once took Ambien thinking I was going to bed and then suddenly realized I had a paper due the next morning I had forgotten about. So, I tried to write the paper while on Ambien. While I don't remember much because of Ambien's amnesia inducing effects, I remember going to bed later thinking that I had just written one of the best papers of my academic career. Then the next morning before handing it in, I read it. I started to debate if I would be better off not handing it in and taking the hit on my grade. It was only pass/fail for having written it or not, but I was so embarassed by how awful my paper was! I couldn't believe I had written it! What a crazy medication. I turned it in, and I think my prof must not have even read it because I never heard anything about it. Ambien - the sleeping pill I love AND hate at the same time. It works for sleep, but the rest of its effects on me are potentially career ruining.

Total crash and burn!!!

I finally fell from the sky yesterday!

I got home from work around 5pm. Took 3 big boxes to the recycle bins outside. Came back in and sat down to gather up some more breath to take out some more trash (I've been busy cleaning out cupboards!!!). I sat down and just couldn't get back up. I couldn't keep my eyes open and didn't feel I could stay awake long enough to stand up and go to the couch or bed, so I put my head back and napped until 7:30 pm. Woke up, took my puffers and went to bed!

I woke up at 5:30 am in the exact same position that I was in when I went got into bed! I got up, went to the bathroom, gave Chynna her meds, took a Tylenol 3 because my ear was sore from having laid on it for so long, then went back to bed. It's nearly 1pm and I just woke up about 15 minutes ago.

Grocery shopping while smoking pot isnt a good idea either!! Everything looks good!!


Anyways onto the predisone part. I had to take it once because I got strep so bad my whole body got Gutate Psoriasis ALLLL OVER it! I had red splotches of itchy hell everywhere but my face I had the Drs stumped for a week till they realized the only way it was going to go away was to get my tonsils taken out. After that Ill never go on prednisone again it was horrible. I feel bad for my sister who needs it every single time she gets poison ivy...

I needed a good laugh today! The "squirrel on crack" comparison did it for me!

I hope you get to feeling better soon

Love this! I can relate, my husband takes it and he's that way. Apparantly I'm strange though, it does not affect me that way? I can take it and sleep my life away!

Yup, squirrel on crack pretty much sums it up!

The last time I was on prednisone we were sitting at a traffic light. My DH looks over and says "You look like you would like to get out and run" That's exactly how I felt.

Originally Posted by 3CatsN1Dog

Grocery shopping while smoking pot isnt a good idea either!! Everything looks good!!


Anyways onto the predisone part. I had to take it once because I got strep so bad my whole body got Gutate Psoriasis ALLLL OVER it! I had red splotches of itchy hell everywhere but my face I had the Drs stumped for a week till they realized the only way it was going to go away was to get my tonsils taken out. After that Ill never go on prednisone again it was horrible. I feel bad for my sister who needs it every single time she gets poison ivy...

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Yeah, grocery shopping when you're stoned is never a good idea- unless you plan on buying crap that you would never even eat normally lol! One time I went to the grocery store with a few friends and I bought like five containers of vanilla frosting..... nothing else, just the frosting. Good thing those days are in the past . I'm too old for that foolishness now

My son took predisone a few times for asthma when he was younger and he would say the same thing. Not about being a squirrel on crack (which is a good way to put it!), but that he was jittery and "pumped-up".

Hope you'll start to feel more normal soon.

Umm, I hear you about going to the grocery store when you're stoned. A loaf of bread, a jar of strawberry preserves. And I hate strawberry preserves! And back then, it was white bread. (The least I could have done was try to find whole wheat.)