I had been on 5mg daily of prednisone for over 15 years for general arthritis. Last August I was diagnosed with possible RA and was prescribed sufasalazine 500 mg tablets on a gradual increase to 2 tablets 2X daily while decreasing my prednisone in 1 mg units as the sufasalazine starts working. After 2 months I was able to
Get down to 3 mg of prednisone but I had an attack that was so bad that my shoulders,hips, legs and right wrist ached so badly that I couldn't move without hurting. I will also note that I play Pickleball about 3X weekly. I am 74 years old. I had to go to 25 mg of prednisone for several days and then tapered to 15mg for 1 week and then down to 10 for one week and then back to 5 mg. In late December I experienced another attack like my last one and my rheumatologist now thinks my symptoms are more characteristic of PMR. So I went back to 20 mg of prednisone with no sulfasalazine but for a week I was still hurting too much to play Pickleball so I added the sulfaslazine and after a few days I was back to normal. My doctor also gave me 1 mg prednisone tablets so I can reduce my prednisone gradually at my own pace as I see fit. It's been two months and I am down to 12 mg of prednisone.