posted
best to not give it cortizone, even thought it might be some limit relief.
years and years ago,... long before I knew I had lyme... or they even knew lyme was chronic.... and dinosaurs roamed the earth...., a duckor...., beacuse that's all there was,.... talked me into a cortizone shot in my hip......
IT HURT LIKE HE**!!! far more than it had hurt before the shot! and, it continued to hurt like that on and off for year to come on and off!
so, I don't know if that is typical of other lymies, but that is my story with cortizone, and I'll never do it again.
After 12months of IV abx I finally had no more pain in my left hip. It really doesn't slip and colaspe on me anymore. It's really quite a miracle. That cortizone did a number on me. I was suupose to go back to the Ducktor for the right hip... glad I knew better!
Posts: 663 | From NH USA | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Cortisone worked great for me. Had a bad shoulder and bam pain was gone within 24 hrs. Just my experience. remember you are not taking large doses of steroids, just an injection in a particular area. I'd say try it
Posts: 355 | From NY | Registered: Jan 2006
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robi
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5547
posted
wow .......... cortisone can be bad for infections. really read up on this please please please.
robi
-------------------- Now, since I put reality on the back burner, my days are jam-packed and fun-filled. ..........lily tomlin as 'trudy' Posts: 2503 | From here | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
Ask Timaca. She has a nice horror story about steroids and Lyme.
If you want that test to come back positive, this won't help!! Steroids suppress the immune system even further and it will be harder for your body to produce antibodies for the WB.
I had several months of steroids with my rheumie before finding out I had Lyme. Big mistake!
If I hadn't moved out of state [and later found out I had Lyme], I'm sure I would be in the grave by now!
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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tdtid
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 10276
posted
Sorry, but I'm another one that has to say "please don't" to the steroids. While undiagnosed, I was told I had degenerative disc disease in my neck and was given the choice of surgery or epidural steroid injections.
Innocently, I picked the steroids since it looked like the less invasive option. But I wound up with symptoms that had them testing me for a stroke.
I was unable to walk, total left side of my body was numb, slurring words, and a tremble in my right arm and hand. My PCP had no clue, but when my N.D. saw me in this condition, he ran a lyme test at Igenex and sent me to a LLMD.
My LLMD said I tested positive for lyme and that steroids are contraindicated for lyme and he could have predicted those symptoms. And yet, even that wasn't enough to wake up your average G.P. and question WHY I had that reaction.
Personally, I wouldn't risk it. It was scarey and not knowing what I was going to get reversed even with treatment was even scarier.
In the end it is your choice and maybe you won't have the experience I had, but for me, I've seen more stories similar to mine than those saying it was a "piece of cake". Weigh your risks and know your lyme puts you in HIGH HIGH HIGH risk that this isn't the right answer.
Hopefully your doctor today that treats lyme will get you on the right track.
Cathy
-------------------- "To Dream The Impossible Dream" Man of La Mancha Posts: 2638 | From New Hampshire | Registered: Oct 2006
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cantgiveupyet
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8165
posted
i took oral steroids because my dr thought i had sinus and inner ear infection.
It was only 4 days worth, but I kept swearing the steroid was making me worse. My symptoms took off after that. :-( I wouldnt recommend them.
Odds are your pain will move around day to day anyhow.
-------------------- "Say it straight simple and with a smile."
"Thus the task is, not so much to see what no one has seen yet, But to think what nobody has thought yet, About what everybody sees."
-Schopenhauer
pos babs, bart, igenex WB igm/igg Posts: 3156 | From Lyme limbo | Registered: Oct 2005
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bejoy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 11129
posted
I don't blame you for wanting to try something to relieve the pain!
I would avoid cortizone shots, though. My lyme symptoms went through the roof after a prednizone shot for having rolled in poison ivy, and I ended up with pain I didn't have before!
I don't know if there are any documented studies about how high dose steroids affect lyme. I have found information on how other nasties, such as hystoplasmosis, can disseminate into the organs after a high dose of cortisone, and wreak havoc.
I believe that for somebody who's adrenals are compromised by lyme, and they are not putting out much cortisol, it is worthwhile to consider low dose cortisol (cortizone, cortef) oral supplementation. Cortisol is a natural hormone that the body needs to have to survive.
I'd only consider taking it after a saliva test to confirm severely low adrenal output, and I'd stay well under 40mg a day, what the body should be producing on its own if it were doing its job.
This is working very well for me, and has significantly reduced my pain, as well as improving my immune response! See James R. Wilson, Adrenal Fatigue.
bejoy
-------------------- bejoy!
"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson Posts: 1918 | From Alive and Well! | Registered: Feb 2007
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I was given a cortizone shot for a problem with my foot (crushed it in a car accident) and bones were rubbing together. So doc thought hey steroids! He asked what part of my foot hurt the most and can back in the office with a huge needle. Without even asking me, he injected me with it. (I found out later what it was) It hurt like a son of a ****** I actually cried.
BTW --- It didn't help.
The next time I got steriods is when I went to my PCP cause I couldn't lift a coffee cup (cause I thought I had carpel tunnel syn.) So he gave me a oral steroid (predizone). The Carpel Tunnel got better during that week of steroids but soon after my whole body started falling apart.... spiraling downward.
If I had either of them to do over again, I WOULD NOT!
klutzo
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5701
posted
Hi, I really empathize with your problem. I have had to have cortisone shots for two different problems since finding out I have Lyme. It was like chosing between bad and worse, a no win situation.
In one case, I got sciatica so bad I could not lie down, sit or stand. I was just screaming in pain with no way to get comfortable. Still, I waited 7 weeks before finally getting a shot. By then, my adrenals were shot from trying to deal with it. The shot made my symptoms a bit worse, and gave me a case of thrush, which I fixed with probiotic mouth rinses, but I would do it again, because I simply had to...the pain was intolerable.
In the other cases, I was stung by a wasp once, and fire ants another time, both of which I have a life-threatening allergy to. My chest and throat were closing up, and my pulse and blood pressure were already so high that adrenaline injections were out of the question. So, I had to have cortisone, and they use quite a high dose for this purpose. My physical Lyme symptoms did not worsen, but I went into a Lyme rage that lasted for three full weeks! My poor husband almost moved out to the garage.
So, in summary, I would avoid it like the plague unless you are really backed into a corner, and then try to minimize the effects as much as you can...and prepare your family for possible off the wall behavior!
Good luck to you,
Klutzo
Posts: 1269 | From Clearwater, Florida, USA | Registered: May 2004
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posted
Pre-diagnosis I had severe back pain so I was given a steroid shot. It helped with the back pain but from there on I went downhill in terms of overall health. The back pain came back and I had a number of other symptoms. It was not a good choice.
-------------------- Lucy Posts: 342 | From Hawaii | Registered: Nov 2005
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Foggy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 1584
posted
YOur LLMD can give you their opinion.
One shot set my body on fire & erased 1.5 years worth of progress. Wasn't worth it.
Posts: 2451 | From Lyme Central | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I got rashes first and tried to get better without steriods, but the dermatologist wanted me to try the topical cream, then pills. He said the cream was safe enough for babies! These guys are dangerous!
After the cream didn't work too well, I broke down (don't do it!) and filled the rx for the pills. I immediately was hit with fatigue. By the end of 5 days I was in the ER with a couple bags of basic saline IV to restore fluids. They called it dehydration and insisted that I finish the full course of steriods (a very mild course).
From that point on my adrenals just about gave up and it's been a huge uphill battle to recover about half my energy after 12 months.
Steriods were not good for me. Be careful!
-------------------- When I lost my grip on Faith in the maze of illness, Hope gently clasped my hand and led on.
RuthRuth Posts: 478 | From California | Registered: Jan 2007
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