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Can you split Prednisone dose for GCA?
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Apr 17 3:59pm | Replies (41)Comment receiving replies
Thank you @johnbishop - I appreciate the feedback and will check those links. His doctor has been very adamant that he not split the dose. However, when he had just PMR (just diagnosed with GCA last week following positive temporal arterial biopsy.) It's been a hard road with doctors not believing that he had GCA, even though he had all the listed symptoms other than blindness and he'd had PMR since May 2023. He'd been treated with Prednisone, dosing in the morning and at night per his same doctor that is insisting on one-time per day dosing. I wonder if he should have been on one dose the whole time since he developed PMR. He ended up in the ER for the weekend. They're doing 3 days of methylprednisone IV infusions (1,200 mg each) and after 2 he's pain free and sleeping. He has his last today then goes to 80 mg in the morning. We are praying the severe nighttime headaches don't return. That is what sent him to the ER when the doctor told us not to use any more Tylenol. It's been a ride.
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I’m going in tomorrow morning to have a Color Doppler vascular ultrasound of my temples, hopefully in lieu of the usual biopsy needed to officially call whatever has caused an unrelenting headache in both temples for going on three weeks. My bulging temple and forehead veins/arteries and jaw pain enabled me to reach a tentative diagnosis last weekend but a 7 hour visit to ER Sunday night, including bloodwork and a CT scan with contrast yielded a Rx for lidocaine patches and advice to try to relax so my tension headache will subside. I had elevated C-reactive protein and high sedimentation, but the ER dr. consulted a hospital neurologist who said it wasn’t GCA because that never occurs on both sides. Thank goodness my PCP found the markers to be convincing enough to order the vascular ultrasound and an initial Rx of prednisone. This conversation is such an eye opener. I was able to pick up the first week’s supply this afternoon and took one with food tonight, but the pharmacist said to really “start it” at tomorrow’s breakfast. The label only says take 3 (20m) a day, with food, and I have been puzzling tonight trying to see if that could mean all at once. You all are a blessing. Thank you, and good luck to all of this on our journey.