ivig and Solu Medrol both for CIDP; double kill?
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I receive Solu Medrol IV and Ig, one after the other. For a time it was monthly, but CIDP came back with a vengeance and it was changed to weekly. Now we are trying every other week. Are the two medications usually given together? I get terrible headaches and lower back pain, but I can walk again.
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Solu Medrol is methylprednisone, a corticosteroid. This is a standard treatment for CIDP, and is given in conjuction with other treatments, but it is usually tapered down over a period of a year or so. Headaches are a known adverse reaction. I suggest you ask your doctor about the long-term plan — whether the dosage will be tapered down and whether you will transition to another drug.
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I showed a copy of GH’s answer to my neurologist and he said that I need to have the SoluMedrol infussion with the IVig because it protects from the IVig’s side effects which he described as very serious.
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that is true. Many who have the side affects get the solumedrol post or pre treatment. Check out archives with member name gabrielle. She doesn’t come on any more, but she had aseptic meningitis all the time like us and had solumedrol introduced and her side affects were controled. Some with bad reactions also do sub q.
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angelast, I suppose your doctor doesn’t have a long term treatment plan yet, because it seems you are still experimenting with treatments. It is in the nature of CIDP that there is no one treatment which is best for all. When I received IvIg I don’t recall receiving anything with it and I had no side effects. However, I had no primary effects, either, except perhaps a temporary slowdown in the progression. We gave up on IvIg and did everything else, including prednisone. I had no adverse reaction to the prednisone, either, but the dosage was tapered down to zero in about a year. I’m glad to be off it.
Whatever your doctor arrives at that works best for you is the way to go.
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I had Prednisone in the hospital and for a time afterward until the new neurologist put me on the combination IVig and Solu medrol. He thinks that long term use of Prednisone is bad for the bones.
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