Managing Secondary Adrenal Insufficiency: A Personal Experience

Question
I currently have adrenal insufficiency secondary to prednisone for a severe asthma episode. I am trying to understand how the recovery goes. Things are not going well. I am supposed to 'stress dose' for illness, but find just exercise can cause problems. I pictured a recovery where I would have no problems unless I caught a cold. Instead I am finding I have to be careful not to overdo just regular life. Is this common? To have this much difficulty with secondary adrenal insufficiency? I was able to wean off steroids in May and have been only stress dosing since, but it is frustrating. Also so hard to find information. I feel like I'm always having to take stress doses of prednisone and there seems to be no end in sight. From reading personal anecdotes online it seems like people deal with this for years--is that true? Thanks for your help.

Answer
Tough question...   it is easy to atribute a lot of vague symptoms to the steroids or lack of steroids.  So changes in dosing are difficult to assess.  But, it is common to be in this predicament when someone has to take a lot of prednsione over a long period.  Talk to them about a weaning schedule that is slow.... your regular feedback loop should come back into play if you slowly wean and can stay off the prednisone for the most part.  

For example, if you stopped completely, no prednisone, no steroids, your feedback loop will normalize in less than a month.  But if you need bursts of steroids for the asthma, then you will slow that down.  I don't know how often you "need" steroids for the asthma, but if you can get by without it, by maximizing other therapies, then it will normalize.