just need to rant a little because i'm overexamining the day to day changes that prednisone is causing (or not!) for me, and i want to get it off my chest. i took prednisone for 12 days for reactive arthritis, and felt like a million bucks achiness-wise for about a week. my stomach was sensitive to it though and i noticed no improvement in usual bowel stuff. then i repeated the 12 day course after a short break...the achiness didn't improve nearly as much, but suddenly i had almost normal (as in pre u.c.!) bowel movements from time to time. today i had a salad and fruit, which usually would kill me and i feel fine. any other time i would either be chained to the toilet, or up all night throwing up from acid that seems to crop up when i eat healthy food. i had a scope before i began the prednisone, no inflammation, the doc said. how can that be? why has the prednisone acted so differently each time? sometimes i can't differentiate between the pain in my ribs and my pelvis, and that from digestion. one thing i am sure of is that the medication really really helped my feet and butt pain the first time around, so now i realize just how uncomfortable i have been. i also wonder if maybe there's inflammation higher along my digestive tract that they're not catching when they do the scope. my stomach does still hurt a bit, but i feel like it's from the medication. well, it's so hard to sort out, i know i'm overexamining things, and it will probably change tomorrow anyway. but i can't sleep, and don't have anyone to vent to. so, that's that! next i will probably try methotrexate, it sounds like, and...this too shall pass, right???

ellen

I use prednisone only for acute flares that cannot be injected locally (like the Achilles tendon). I feel pretty darn good on it though.

My rheumatologist had me skip the methotrexate and go straight to the Enbrel, then Humira as soon as it was approved. It's not perfect, but I am so much better on it.

Have you tried sulfasalazine? It is reasonably effective for the peripheral arthritis, but not so much for the spinal arthritis.

Jan