Strange Problem Taking Prednisone?

quietatnight

Member
Author
Jul 7, 2014
346
Rockford IL
Tinnitus Since
1990
Cause of Tinnitus
Acoustic trauma / firecracker
New turn on my siren story, craziest thing I have ever seen.

I decided to take some prednisone in hopes that it would help with my slight hearing loss in my left ear and tinnitus increase, it has worked in the past.

So I took the first dose last night around 7:30. I took it right after dinner because I know it's supposed to be taken with food to make it easy on the stomach. I took my nightly sleeping medication at 10:00, clonazepam & seroquel and went to sleep.

At 1:30 AM I was woken out of a deep sleep by a loud tinnitus spike, ( that never happens to me ), being louder then I have ever heard before. It kept me up the rest of the night, I'm still up. I don't understand it. I have taking prednisone many times over the years before with no problems. The only thing that I can think of, is that I had a fair amount of salt at dinner last night, I had put a bunch of saltine crackers in my stew.

I was wondering, I know that prednisone and salt are both NOT ototoxic, but is it possible that the two together in the blood stream could have cause some kind of chemical reaction, with the extra salt at dinner making the prednisone ototoxic ? and got into my ears some how, and cause a problem or a spike ? I know not likely, but is it a possible ? I

have called the pharmacist, and the ENT doctor both of them said very unlikely. Maybe someone in here could shed some light on this, I'm out of ideas as to why this has happened. I have been trying to figure out if this new spike is from an ototoxic issue or an acoustic trauma, how can someone tell the difference ?


Please, any information will be appreciated


Louie

Quietatnight
 
I would bet you are fine. Spikes cannot always be explained and rarely do you ever have control over them. I wouldn't let this get to you.
 
erik

I respect your view and I agree with you we don't always know for sure what causes a spike. like I said, I'm not worried about the general spikes, I will recover from those. It's only if a spike is cause by something like damage due to ototoxity from some drug, that most people never recover from unless it's asprin.

I'm still wondering if that 's the case with me taking prednisone last night after that rather salty meal ? This is what I'm trying to figure out.


Thank You
Take care

Louie

Quietatnight
 
Yes prednisone can cause or make tinnitus worse, it did for me. I wouldn't be taking this unless you have some major hearing loss happening, and only use as last resort. Weird that you think something like salt is the culprit when you have just taken a potent dangerous drug that you have combined with other potent dangerous drugs, sounds like some serious denial to me. From your posts in the past, you are so careful around noise, yet you think these drugs are like harmless candy or what? Guess what, drugs are dangerous and can do permanent damage to your brain and the rest of your body, be careful.




From drugs.com:

Drugs.com warns that prednisone can cause visual problems, trouble breathing, rapid weight gain, swelling and bloody stools. It can also cause hemoptysis (coughing up blood), convulsions, depression and hypokalemia (low potassium). Symptoms of hypokalemia include an arrythmia (irregular heartbeat), frequent urination, muscle weakness, leg pain, thirst and confusion. Prednisone can cause pancreatitis, a condition in which your pancreas is inflamed. Signs of pancreatitis are the following: nausea, vomiting, tachycardia (fast heartbeat) and stomach pain that radiates to your back. Sometimes, prednisone can provoke hypertension (high blood) and cause an excruciating headache, tinnitus (ringing in your ears), chest pain, confusion, arrythmia (irregular heartbeat) and seizure. Other major side effects include hives, itching, stomach pain or swelling, difficulty swallowing and vomiting.
 
In the last month I've done two rounds of methylprednisolone. My experience both times was a noticeable increase in the intensity of my tinnitus for 2-3 days and then a quieting of my tinnitus around the time the course of the drug ended. The only bad side effects for me were insomnia on the first day and heartburn.
 
Telis

I feel that your post is very Harsh and saying things like "sounds like some serious denial to me" and "these drugs are like harmless candy" was totally uncalled for, maybe I need to remind you are your on a "Support" board. People on here are already suffering and don't need to be beaten up more.

I did check with my doctor and pharmacist before taking any medications, I ALWAYS ask if any new medication is ototoxic. I even went as far as to check out the fillers in some of these medications to be sure they were not ototoxic and get an alternate brand if I need to before I took them. I am very responsible when taking any medications. I keep a log and space them hours apart and never mix them with alcohol. All drugs have side effects even my Prilosac that I HAVE to take to take to stay alive. And by the way, it has tinnitus listed as a side effect on the data sheet.

I have read all of the post on Prednisone that I could find on Tinnitus Talk and there are a lot, and I only found one that claimed that it effected their tinnitus. It's the only medication that is out their for people that get hit with an acoustic trauma causing them to get an increase in there tinnitus, and or loose hearing, and what ENT's prescribe all the time. And yes I did suffer hearing loss in my left ear this last time. That's why I took the prednisone, in hopes of restoring it. I know now it was a bad trade off.

If prednisone was the reason for your tinnitus, or made your tinnitus worse, I'm sorry, I wish that you would have posted how possible that can happen, in BOLD type. I would have never have taken it, your a couple of days late in my case. I think because most medications have tinnitus listed as a side effect, it's hard to give it a lot of weight. If I had know before this week that Prednisone could have made my tinnitus like it is now, like I said I would have never had taken it. I had mentioned in my older post over the years that I was considering and did take the medication a few times before and I don't remember you or anyone saying it was a bad idea then ever. I wish that you would have said something to me back then. I did not know it had such an effect on you if you did post something I don't know how I missed it. But I would have never had taken it again.

That a side...

Maybe you can stop lecturing me and tell me what I can expect form this and what I can do now that would be supportive at this point. That I could use right now.


Louie

Quietatnight

PS: Your right I was always "so careful around noise", that I over looked the problems with medications, I was so worried about antibiotics that I never thought that other drugs could have the same threat to me. A hard lesson learned I guessed.
 
I had some problems after Prednisone too, but I was never too sure what was to blame.

You can't always imagine what will happen. Live in peace with the past and focus on getting better.

Telis is always harsh, don't take it personally.
 
It might be too late to tell you this now but don't take clonazepam, it's a benzo and benzos and tinnitus don't work together.
 
@Bill Bauer


Yes I would say that I recovered about 95% back to my baseline and I can live with that. But it's really hard tell for sure. Some days it does feel like I'm back to 100%, but you know how tinnitus is, with it's bad days and good days. I will say this though, I will never take predisone again, unless and atom bomb is dropped on me LOL. And I recommend the same for anyone else. I have learned that drugs can turn on you at anytime, even after taking them many times or many years like I have. As a matter of fact I have started to get off All of my medications and doing pretty successful at it so far. I'm down to 3 out of 5 and those 3 are at 1/2 the dose level that I was on, so I am making progress. The hardest one will be the Prilosac , I have tried to get off that before and was unable to, but I have a plan in the works. I just don't believe that all of the medications that I have been taking over so many years are good for me anymore. Doing more harm then good. I guess at the time I have to admit they saved my life, but I'm past all of that now. They have become just a force of habit, more then anything else.

I hope that you are doing well

.

Louie

Quietatnight
 
Prednisone and alcohol don't interact from what I read on the web.

But I always limited my intake when on steroids, I kinda forgot about that a couple of days ago, and I drank like 3 Gin Tonics (6 hours after my prednisone). My tinnitus spiked that night and is still a bit higher.

Could it be related?
 
In the last month I've done two rounds of methylprednisolone. My experience both times was a noticeable increase in the intensity of my tinnitus for 2-3 days and then a quieting of my T around the time the course of the drug ended. The only bad side effects for me were insomnia on the first day and heartburn.
Prednisone made my tinnitus worse too, but afterwards it got back to normal. It should be OK with time.
 

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