or at least we think it is. Otherwise it is just my body being weirder then it already is.
After over a decade of being on oral steroids I thought I had come across most of the side effects. I have not experienced all of them but have heard of them or at least I thought I had.
Prednisilone suppresses your immune system making you susceptible to anything and everything that is going. One of the big ones we get warned about is chicken pox and shingles. If we are ever in contact with someone who has them we need to get in touch with our medical team. Over the years I have had to do this a few times and received treatment to protect myself from getting either virus too. The treatment is not fun. It is injections of varicella zoster immunoglobulins which is essentially 10mls roughly of a vaseline type substance into your muscles. Then some acclovir as well if needed. Each time i also get a blood test to see if I have any immunity to either virus. My blood tests always come up negative meaning I have no antibodies to it. I have also had the shingles vaccine which is the odd part. Despite having the immunoglobulins and the vaccine I still have no anti bodies when I should.
I get questioned so often if I am sure that I have had chicken pox (my parents assure me I have my Drs on the other hand say that because my bloods say I havnt!!) then I also get the question if I actually had the vaccination to it. Sometimes I think people must think I am bizarre but it is my body just being odd and I do think it is due to the prednisilone. It does things to your body that you would never think a tiny wee white pill (or 8) could do. The benefits the drug has is that it keeps me alive but the side effects are unreal.
When studying for my nursing we all had to have the Hepatitis B vaccine which is a course of injections given over a period of time with a blood test to see if you have taken up the vaccine and then depending on that blood test a repeat course of the vaccine or a booster dose. Well after the first course and the blood test I was once again being questioned if I did actually have the injections- of course they knew I had the injections because the stickers off each syringe were in my notes but my blood test results were as though I had never received any injection. So I had a repeat course and another blood test. The result of that blood test was exactly the same as the first time so we decided we would leave it there, when I say exactly the same I mean 0.
After my recent experience with chicken pox and shingles I was thinking back. I ended up with flu after having the flu vaccine I think it was when it was swine flu (mainly coz I remember my mum visiting me in ICU dressed up in the mask, gown, gloves etc). All of these things have happened when I have been on long term oral prednisilone. I am not sure what my vaccine up take was like as a kid because you don’t really test to check a child has had a response to a vaccine, you just assume they do because they got the injection. I do want to speak to someone when I get the chance to ask about this because I am concerned that my body cannot fight like it used to, I just don’t have the physical strength so I really don’t want to be picking up something that I was immunised against as a child. I am hoping that these recent vaccines have not worked because of the prednisilone and not because of any other autoimmune thing that my body has.
I would be interested to hear from anyone that has had similar experience to me with vaccines and no uptake to them.
ANONYMOUS-ASTHMA 