[livingwith]

I had open heart surgery for a valve repair Nov.2007. April 2008 was diagnosed with pericarditis It took 10 months to finally come off of prednisone. I would try to come off but the symptoms would come back. Finally I came off and after 10 months of being free it’s back. Now I am on prednisone and cholchisine. I have to say I am really upset and can’t understand why this is so difficult to beat. I am an otherwise healthy 40 year old woman who has a good full life with a 4year ...Read the full article

[shahia]

I can feel you pain (literally!). I too have been battling recurrences. My first bout was last May and for some assinine reason I agreed to take prednisone. Oh how I wish I'd had some time to research it! Now I am doing the see saw thing of trying to get off of it! I've had 4 hospital stays since then. Everytime I get to about 10mg I have all the symptoms come back. I'm dealing with this right now and have taken a few day off of work. I worry that I will never get off of this devil drug. All I can do is increase some other meds and take pain killers and hope the symptoms settle, or get worse :o(

I empathize with you having a little one to manage while you're dealing with this! Do you have some help around the house? It can be hard asking for help but make sure that you do. I have noticed when I do too much (even if it doesn't seem like too much) I start to feel the tightness coming back.
My kids are old enough to fend for themselves but it is also a huge financial hit when I end up being off of work (a total of 4.5 months last year since May!)

I'm guessing that the doctors have done the array of tests on you to determine if there is any underlying condition, autoimmune etc? I know how frustrating it is to have something 'idiopathic'. It makes you wonder if they know what they are talking about! Hopefully we can both be over and done with this episode in life sooner than later!