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Having Chest Tightness And Upper Back Pain After Taking Medrol. How Long Will It Take For The Side Effects To Subside?

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Posted on Wed, 11 Dec 2013
Question: Have just finished medrol 6 day dose for a peristant neck pain, and during the time had chest tightness and upper back pain and headache. Taking protonix for GRD but does not seem to help. Had complete cardiac work up three months ago so know its not cardiac. How long before the side effects leave? XXXXXXX YYYY@YYYY
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Answered by Dr. Chobufo Ditah (1 hour later)
Brief Answer: See below Detailed Answer: Hi and thank you so much for this query. I am so sorry too hear about this chest tightness and upper back pain. These together sounds like acute gastritis which could be a possible and well documented side effect of steroids especially when taken in huge doses. There is no standard duration on how long the symptoms would last. However, the smartest decision is to stop the drug and or add drugs to protect the stomach against steroids aggression. That you have already done. This means, symptoms would only witness a progressive down turn in intensity over time. I will suggest that you continue with protonix as improvement ay take sometime. Also, adding other drugs like antacids would help provide direct relief. If the symptoms are too severe, you may want to consult and get this pain completely investigated. What dose of protonix are you taking? Please, you can take up to 40mg in 2divided doses if symptoms are not getting any better. I hope this addresses your query fully. I wish you a quick recover and thank you so much for using our services. Feel free to ask for follow up questions if need be. Thanks Dr. Ditah MD
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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Dr. Chobufo Ditah

General & Family Physician

Practicing since :2009

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Having Chest Tightness And Upper Back Pain After Taking Medrol. How Long Will It Take For The Side Effects To Subside?

Brief Answer: See below Detailed Answer: Hi and thank you so much for this query. I am so sorry too hear about this chest tightness and upper back pain. These together sounds like acute gastritis which could be a possible and well documented side effect of steroids especially when taken in huge doses. There is no standard duration on how long the symptoms would last. However, the smartest decision is to stop the drug and or add drugs to protect the stomach against steroids aggression. That you have already done. This means, symptoms would only witness a progressive down turn in intensity over time. I will suggest that you continue with protonix as improvement ay take sometime. Also, adding other drugs like antacids would help provide direct relief. If the symptoms are too severe, you may want to consult and get this pain completely investigated. What dose of protonix are you taking? Please, you can take up to 40mg in 2divided doses if symptoms are not getting any better. I hope this addresses your query fully. I wish you a quick recover and thank you so much for using our services. Feel free to ask for follow up questions if need be. Thanks Dr. Ditah MD