Doc rx's me Pred for gout when nothing else will touch it. 40 mg burst dose, then down titrate from there usually taking 6 days. Did the same for a severe swollen poison oak/ivy reaction. Works well in those applications. And yes, I get 'roid rage from it. Wife and kids give me wide berth when I'm on a Pred bender.
Mom was on it 7 years for PMR trying to keep SED rates down. It worked in that regard, but destroyed her bones. As we speak, she's bedridden. T3 is gone - like not there. T2 and T4 are swollen with compression fractures, and T5 is extremely hot - ortho's words, not mine. Ortho showed me the MRI.
The bone is so brittle and weak that there's nothing to screw into - like punky wood. Can't do the injectable cement either because there's nothing there to attach it to. Ortho said it's the years of taking Pred and an otherwise healthy lady is probably going to die from it.
Really sorry to hear that...
I've done the treatment three times, once for gout and twice for bronchitis. The second time with bronchitis my MD wouldn't give me any antibiotics, she won't for a viral infection. A few days after the week of prednisone the bronchitis came back with a vengeance. I skipped my MD, went to RediMed. That doctor uped the doseage and extended the treatment to two weeks, also gave me a Zpac. That knocked the cr@p out of the bronchitis. My MD never said a word about me doing an end around.