Long-term prednisone use will atrophy your muscles, weaken your bones and cause all kinds of nasty side effects - good thing you are off that. Prednisone with vyvanse sounds like a recipe for adrenal fatigue. Have you been tested for adrenal fatigue? A lot of your symptoms sounds like the fatigue associated with systemic lupus - light and heat sensitivity. Have you been tested for dsDNA antibodies? anti-NMDAR, anti-vgcc, anti-RO? dsDNA antibodies can affect NMDAR receptors due to some molecular similarity or such. If your blood brain barrier is not functioning well, you can have cognitive dysfunction without any measurable inflammatory activity, if you have any of these antibodies.
I would add a mast cell stabilizer to that regimen. Antihistamines are not good for your fatigue, so maybe catechins/EGCG. Hydroxychloroquine helps a lot of people with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. My wife who has lupus benefits a lot in energy and mood from tramadol. She had a period where she almost could not walk - tramadol fixed that. Mixing tramadol and vyvanse might be a bit unhealthy if you have adrenal fatigue, though. Noopept also does wonders for her (I suspect it is due to the effects it has on H2O2).
It sounds completely illogical, but I am certain that a strong immune system is important to managing a chronic autoimmune disease. Make sure your diet supports your immune system and get plenty of good sleep.
Prednisone had been my frenemy. It causes horrible side-effects, and the long term use of it can cause all sorts of complications. However, if I was on severely flaring-up, it had been the only thing that worked. It dramatically suppressed my immune system for a short period of time.... which would just give me a break from my body attacking itself (specifically the colon). but it would always be short term, 4 weeks, and then tapering off, which was a nightmare. But somehow, I built a tolerance to it, actually, its more common that I though. I was on it 5 times total. I haven't taken it in over 8 months now, and I haven't showed much improvement from the other medications.
I don't think medication caused this fatigue, I had it before I started either drug.. its just a non-stop sick fealing because my body won't stop attacking itself. I do have typical Cronhs related pain, and it can be rough at times, but even when the pain goes away... the fatigue still continues.
My symptoms are very similar to lupus, my aunt suffers from it, and she is mostly bedridden as well, I will ask my doctor about tramadol. I don't have any skin conditions as of yet, other than the light sensitivity, which is brand new... I was kind of shocked by it... since its the only symptom I have that isn't common with Cronh's. And yes,the first thing I thought of was Lupus. I am actually going to get the ANA test at my next physical next month, so that will at least give me a better idea.
I do drink green tea.. but I can increase the amount. I will try Noopept, I actually just ordered some... so hopefully it will help a bit. Yes, sleep is super important for me. I've been battling that for quite some time.