RE: Pred. effects

July 3, 2003

Anita, it sounds as if your doc has covered all the possibilities with you and has you prepared for anything that may happen. That's great! So many of them say "Here, take this [or worse..."try this"] and come back in a month or so" and then off we go with something we know nothing about! I admit, I've never heard that you don't grow in height while on pred but I've always known people who had finished growing before taking it. I can tell you that you DO grow in weight. That's one of our common vent topics on the list: weight gain from medications! I guess in some cases, that would be a good thing!

I'm sure Samren will do just fine on the prednisone. It sounds like you have everything under control now just sit back and wait and try to relax. I know that's easier said than done but rather than all of the different diaries, perhaps your time now would be better spent just enjoying quality time with your beautiful children that you are blessed to be able to stay home with and maybe just doing a single "thought" journal in your quiet time to give you an outlet of sorts.

Just a thought! Hang in there! We're here for whatever help you need!

Christy

Pred. effects

Hi Christy,

Thanks for the reassurances about the effects of Prednisone. I hope you are right about EVERYTHING!!!! Samren is on day 3 of it now and still no side-effects to speak of (except for him eating way more than normal, which is a GOOD thing for him since he usually refuses his formula by mouth!).

I don't know how the dosages work exactly, but for Samren's weight/age (?) the 7mgs a day is considered "high dose" (the doc's words). Our doc said that it "will" (again, his word) cause Cushings in the short term and all but the gained weight should return back to normal after he is off of the Pred. again. According to him, behavioral changes (aggression/irritability) and sleeplessness are two of the "biggie" symptoms for young kids but our doc assured us that not every kid gets the behavioral side effects. Another thing that he told us is that Samren won't grow in height the entire time he is on "high dose". That's kind of a bummer considering he's so short already after being FTT for the last year! I hope that our doc is just trying to prepare us for all that *can* happen so that we are relieved if some (or all) of the side effects never come.

Having said all of that, we are lucky! WHEN (didn't say if, thinking positively!) he goes into remission the hope is that he won't have to be on any daily steroids, or only every other day, so that the long term effects are lessened. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm so glad to know that he probably won't have any of the withdrawals you mentioned. That doesn't sound fun at all. =-(

Thanks!

Anita

July 3, 2003

-----Original Message-----From: Christy >> I admit, I've never heard that you don't grow in height while on pred but I've always known people who had finished growing before taking it.

Yeah, I think it's a young Ped. effect. Growth is (supposedly) majorly stunted when kids are on long-term steroids. But we were told that Sammy would be under 5 feet just because of the Failure to Thrive he's had the last year, so I don't know how much shorter he could get! The short thing kind of bugs me (only because he's a boy, honestly), but my (short) hubby just laughs it off and says "So what! There are short women out there!"

>> I can tell you that you DO grow in weight. That's one of our common vent topics on the list: weight gain from medications!

LOL! Well, I'm not growing in weight because of medications, but I can relate to topic of weight gain (says the size 18). =-)

>> It sounds like you have everything under control now just sit back and wait and try to relax.

Ha! If I do it's in large part to all of you in this group!!!

>> I know that's easier said than done but rather than all of the different diaries, perhaps your time now would be better spent just enjoying quality time with your beautiful children that you are blessed to be able to stay home with and maybe just doing a single "thought" journal in your quiet time to give you an outlet of sorts.

Yep. That's the same conclusion I've come to. I'm just going to go into "chill" mode and relax about all of this. There's no way for me to control what's going to happen so I might as well NOT spend all of my time obsessing over the details! I keep a "From mom to you" journal for both of my kids, so I will continue to record my overall thoughts in there for Samren to read when he's older.

Anita

July 3, 2003

Your hubby's right, LOL

I'm about an inch taller than my hubby--no big deal. And those model types are ALWAYS with shorter guys, LOL

Kathy