I've been put on this as a trial by an ENT who wants to see
if it may have any impact on some problems I'm having with
my ears that might be related to an inflammatory process. (I
had blood drawn for testing on Friday and started the
Prednisone then while we await the test results.) My problem
is not typical (severe bilateral intrusive tinnitus), and I
know many people frown on the use of prednisone without
'identifiable just cause', but that's neither here nor there
for me at the moment.
I'm just curious about a few things:
1) How long does it take for Prednisone to begin working on
inflammation? I'm on day two, having taken the first six
tablets yesterday (4mg each) and 2 today. I thought I
felt pretty darn good yesterday, but I may have just been
having a naturally good day. I took 3 tablets yesterday
morning and another 3 about 4 hours later, and rode the
rest of the day. I woke up today feeling back to my bad
self, and have taken two of today's 5 tablets so far with
no change.
2) This is pretty minor, but I've read a lot about side
effects of extreme hunger on even these lower dose oral
prednisone packs. So far I haven't had a budge in my
appetite. I only find it interesting because I was told
several years ago after an unrelated test (blood and
saliva) that my cortisol levels were 'off' though I
wasn't given any further information on that. Prior to
that I had experienced quite a bit of weight gain over
the course of a few years, going from a very lean 140
pounds to nearly 190 (male, late 20s, average height)
and my face while not becoming round like a platter
definitely has a puffed up appearance vs what it once
had. My weight has since stabilized, though I've been
unable to lose any of it even when going on diets for a
few months. I do not eat an excess of food, in fact I
generally eat (according to a number of sources) only
enough to support about 170 pounds or so, but I keep
floating around 185-190. I know it's very early on in
Prednisone treatment but after reading the experiences
of others I sort of wonder if perhaps I haven't had
some sort of related problem all along given that I've
been under a tremendous amount of stress from the
tinnitus throughout this entire period going back to
the weight gain.
Sorry, I've looked through Google and haven't been able to
find much information on the hunger question, and not much
information on how long the drug itself takes to kick in.