Joined
·
377 Posts
Hi Dawn,
Welcome to the Lupus Site! The advantage of Prednisone over pain medications is that Prednisone will actually slow the disease down where as pain medications just relieve the pain. Sometimes GP/PCP's will do a course of Prednisone to help with the diagnosis process. Prednisone will help Lupus but not Fibromyalgia or CFS. Prednisone is the medication that we love and hate. It is great at slowing the disease down quickly but the long term side effects can be bad.
I will say that I have not had any lasting issues from taking Prednisone. The first 7-8 years I was ill I was on Prednisone all the time, most of it my daily dose was 10mg with increases during bad flares and decreases when we tried to get me off it. So much more is known now about Prednisone and most doctors do not leave patients on it long term unless it is absolutely necessary to control the disease process.
Can you push your doctor to refer you to a good rheumatologist for a consulation? Agree to take the prednisone for 6-10 days if you can see a specialist who can help in the diagnosis process. Do you know what your ana result was? Can you get copies off all the lab tests? Then you can check it against the lists of labs and see if he his missing any tests.
The others have given you good info on the meds we take and the need for a lupus specialist.
Let us know how things go.
Take care,
Karen
Welcome to the Lupus Site! The advantage of Prednisone over pain medications is that Prednisone will actually slow the disease down where as pain medications just relieve the pain. Sometimes GP/PCP's will do a course of Prednisone to help with the diagnosis process. Prednisone will help Lupus but not Fibromyalgia or CFS. Prednisone is the medication that we love and hate. It is great at slowing the disease down quickly but the long term side effects can be bad.
I will say that I have not had any lasting issues from taking Prednisone. The first 7-8 years I was ill I was on Prednisone all the time, most of it my daily dose was 10mg with increases during bad flares and decreases when we tried to get me off it. So much more is known now about Prednisone and most doctors do not leave patients on it long term unless it is absolutely necessary to control the disease process.
Can you push your doctor to refer you to a good rheumatologist for a consulation? Agree to take the prednisone for 6-10 days if you can see a specialist who can help in the diagnosis process. Do you know what your ana result was? Can you get copies off all the lab tests? Then you can check it against the lists of labs and see if he his missing any tests.
The others have given you good info on the meds we take and the need for a lupus specialist.
Let us know how things go.
Take care,
Karen
