My wife was admitted to hospital 20 days ago for lupus that presents as aseptic meningitis. She has had condition all her life. She has had meningitis and hospitalized 6 times previously. Last hospitalization was 12 years ago. This has been the longest time since major flare up. She is allergic to nsaids and has to be treated with solumedrol to counter inflammation. She was on 375mg/day for 12 days, then tapered down to 240mg for one day, had adverse effects, then went back up to 375mg for 1 day before tapering down to 300 mg for 3 days, then 240mg for 3 days, and now she is currently on the second day of 180mg. My concern is the whole time she has been on .5mg of Diluatid every 2 hours since she got here. We have been in hospital for 3 weeks now. She has had insomnia from all the steroids and has been in severe pain the whole time. Dr. says meningitis is cleared, now just working on rebound headaches and neck stiffness. My concern is that she can't go without the .5mg Dilautid iv and now has to go to oral to be able to go home. If any of you have experience with long term dilautid dependency after 3 weeks on steroidal (solumedrol/predisone) treatment