Prednisolone the friend and foe

Many a ‘loopie’ has to take Prednisolone at least at some point and often long-term, to control their symptoms - me included. If you don't take it now there is a strong likelihood it may be necessary at some point.

But Prenisolone introduces yet another lupus paradox: the very drug that saves your life (and let’s face it, regardless of what you feel about it, it does seem to help keep things in check) simultaneously messes you up in one way or another. The only way to describe my own feeling towards it is most definitely as a ‘love / hate relationship’ and I have found this is true for others too.

The alarming potential long term side-effects such as osteoporosis, diabetes or stomach ulcers are one thing, but the future is unknown and we can but hope for the best. Nonetheless, we are still able to take the best measures we can to help avoid such outcomes, such as taking calcium supplements, eating a healthy diet and taking medication to protect the stomach lining.

But it seems the more immediate and pesky symptoms that plague us in our daily lives are the ones that really bother us and give us a sense of righteous indignation. I’m talking insomnia, acne and weight gain for example, not to mention other common nasties like depression and / or ‘mania’. I can’t help but feel any of these is like adding insult to injury!

Still like it and/or loath it, until our dream ‘wonder cure’ is invented (and I am optimistic that one day it will) many of us have not much choice but to live with our ‘friend and foe’ Prednisolone if we want to keep the lupus symptoms under control. All we can do is approach it in a pragmatic way.

I suppose it goes without saying, first and foremost any side-effects should be discussed with your doctor, then take on board their advice. Beyond this, in order to reap the benefits of prednisolone, you have to seek out ways to cope with the side-effects and manage them as best as possible. My success in achieving this has varied depending on the particular side-effect in question. For example, each time I think I’ve cracked insomnia (the kind where after going into a deep sleep you wake up at an unearthly hour say 4.00am, as if you have an inner alarm clock programmed, only to finally drop off again 5 minutes before the real alarm goes off) for it to come back and start plaguing me all over again, so I am still working on that one. With others I’ve had more success. So it is my intention to do a post looking at each side-effect individually and considering how best to tackle it. I am going to kick-off with avoiding weight gain as this is the one that seems to affect most people to some extent and certainly gives rise to the greatest upset. Watch this space.