appleton Posted March 8, 2005 Share Posted March 8, 2005 Have had a problem w/ coughing for several months. Has gotten to the point of losing much needed sleep. Have tried to sleep sitting up, no good. Have had to stop and park the car just to get over a fit of coughing that last for 3 or 4 minutes. There have been times that I thought I was going to pass out because I couldn`t catch my breath. My pulmonolgist started me on prednisone. The 4th day I was starting to do better......but as the dosage went down every 5 days, the coughing started to get bad again. Still trying it hoping it will help.....I`m so tired of this. Question: Has prednisone helped any of you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justakid Posted March 8, 2005 Share Posted March 8, 2005 Karen- When I was just dx at stage 4 (because of reoccurance), I was on 10mg of prednisone. Once they found that the cancer was back they increased me to 40mg, after about 2 weeks I was cut back to 20mg. 40mg helped a lot with the SOB and coughing, 30 has kept the coughing down but the SOB is worse, 20mg is horrible. I see the doc again on wednesday and we'll see where we go from there. Oh yeah, I have gained 13 pounds in 13 days also!!!!! Good luck and let us know how it goes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cindi o'h Posted March 8, 2005 Share Posted March 8, 2005 Hi Karen.. I am a prednisone queen. I have asthma. When I have had flares, the immunologist would put me on 60mg. day for 5 days..then a fast taper. So that I would be off in about 7=8 days. Now... I have radiation pneumonitis.. I am one of those people who oncodoc and Cunningham talk about who have lingering damage to the interstitial fibers from the radiation even years out from radiation. So I have been on at least 40 mg since Thanksgiving. And we tried to taper from there but then I got the flu and that exacerbated my lung diseases and back up on the dosage again. I really really like my pulmonologist. She explained a lot to me. She said that ALL of the inflammation needs to get out before the fibrosis will stop. I have so much scar tissue in there now. I am horribly short of breath. I wish she would have been my doc in the beginning and that we would have been aggressive back then. All of this could have been avoided if I had been properly treated. Don't fool around with this. It can create permanent damage and scarring. Question your doc and be persistent until you feel better and/or have your answers. Best to you, Karen. Cind o'h Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Lamb Posted March 8, 2005 Share Posted March 8, 2005 Karen, I have been coughing like that for 7 weeks. My PCP gave me anti biotic for broncitis,had an xray (clean) had a CT scan & was told clean, had a broncoscopy & they found large mass blocking 80% of my windpipe.(a met from the lung). Don't mean to frighten you but you may want to have doc recheck you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appleton Posted March 8, 2005 Author Share Posted March 8, 2005 Sorry........put this in the wrong forum and don`t know how to move it. Thank you Justakid, Cindi o`h and Frank for your info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richinsdakota Posted March 8, 2005 Share Posted March 8, 2005 Hi; sorry ur having this problem, and Im sure the prednisone is necessary...all I know is it turned me into a sleepless, emotional wreck when I took it for chemo treatments. I guess we cant avoid these awful side effects tho....cant stop taking it if u need it. Id be inclined to make them find the cause of the cough tho...? dunno...good luck...Rich B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ry Posted March 8, 2005 Share Posted March 8, 2005 Have you tried a cough syrup with codeine for the nighttime? That does the trick for John. You need to sleep! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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