I think I have this figured out. I was on 10mg Prednisone for 17+ years. Your adrenal gland makes 7.5 on its own. They slowly weaned me off but NOT slowly enough for my adrenal gland to wake-up. I was on 7.5mg for three weeks, then 5mg for three weeks and 2.5 for three weeks then zero as of January 15. I started getting sick around Christmas. I was up in Spokane and my legs were just rubber..... "Muscle weakness". I couldn't find anything on the Internet about Prednisone withdrawal........ dha it is a STEROID. I looked up "steroid withdrawal" and it looks pretty much like what I have.I mentioned it to my Dr..... KIDNEY SPECIALIST, and she said "it certainly could be". But, she is still thinking my kidney needs to come out. So she ordered me a Nuclear Scan of my kidney.Hey, it could be my kidney. But, don't ya think she would explore prednisone withdrawal first?Get this..... At Dialysis I sit by this nice guy that had his kidney 18 years. He is a Physician. He told me that he was on 2.5 for six months before he finally quit. He said "even then I took 2.5 every other day and then every third day etc." We have the same Nephrologist. I started questioning him about "why she would wean me off differently." He said he just did it on his own.I started taking 2.5 again. It can't hurt anything.
Geoff, no they didn't expect my kidney function to return. But, I think after being on 10mg of Prednisone for so long, that I needed to taper down a lot slower.I'm not getting too excited, but I feel a LOT better today. I took 2.5mg again at noon because that is where I want it on my drug schedule.I woke up and was hungry. That hasn't happened for a long time. I took a shower and didn't have to go lay down for an hour.I read my email and felt like responding. I went to the store, I took the dogs for a walk, I went and got what is left of my hair trimmed. There is NO WAY in HELL I could have done that the last 3 weeks. Oh, yeah I picked up dog POOP in the yard... way over due. AND I'm typing NOW.......... Hey, if you hit Preview there is a spell check!!! Thanks Epoguy. I don't want to be MAD at my Nephrologist, but don't ya think "Prednisone Withdrawal" should have been at least on her Radar Screen?
When my transplant failed I was kept on prednisone and the two other anti rejection drugs until it completely stopped working. While you are still urinating, you need to be on some antirejection meds, as any amount of urine produced is better than none. Another reason you need to stay on the meds is that your body can still reject the kidney, even if it is completely failed. This can make you quite ill. I was slowly weaned off the prednisone over quite some months. I was on one antirejection med until the kidney was taken out.
angieskidney....how come they removed your adrenal glands? Ive had a bilateral nephrectomy too.