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How did you cope with the side effects tapering off prednisone?
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Jan 4 4:16pm | Replies (205)Comment receiving replies
Okay, I am embarrassed. But on the other hand this is perfect example of steroid side effects. I am constantly mixing up things. black vs. white. opposites. doing the opposite of what I intended to do. mixing up numbers. forgetful. feeling lost. confused. So my above comment was incorrect. I went from a 0 pain level to a 1-2 pain level. Not an 8-9!! Sorry about that. I read last night that steroids cause a form of 'dementia" .
I definitely feel like I'm experiencing it. Luckilly they say it mostly reverses itself once off the steroids. I am seeing a Neurologist this week though (aside from my Rheumatologist) because I am so worried.
Replies to "Okay, I am embarrassed. But on the other hand this is perfect example of steroid side..."
I too can relate. Tapering off very conservatively (1 month 1/2 mg decrease) had increased pain at 3 mg so jumped back to 5 mg and pain decreased. But tiredness is unreal. I know the adrenals do take time to “wake up” and function again. Brain farts are constant! I’ll do something and completely forget I did it, and do it again. Hence one rather fat cat lol.
Didn’t know pred causes brain fog although PMR certainly does. I had it before I started pred but not since. Hope I don’t!
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I can relate to this. I notice cognitive changes after 8 months on prednisone. I've had some problems with word-finding before but not completely going blank. I went to the grocery store to get some water chestnuts for an Asian dish I was cooking. I couldn't find them in the International section so headed to another section that has tofu. On the way I got distracted by marinated artichokes and picked up a jar of those. I finally found an employee and when I started asking him where the water chestnuts were my mind went completely blank. He was nice and knew what I was talking about when I described them. No, the store did not carry them!