Kevzara and Prednisone Tapering before and during Kevzara

I started Kevzara mid December and I had infections in both eye lids soon after. Very hard to control. The skin infections and peeling started about the beginning of Feb. the skin cancer popped up in Jan. I have many other new skin bumps. Don’t know about the other meds available as yet.

Hello all,
Several folks asked me to report on my Kevzara experience when I could, so here goes. PMR began for me overnight in November of 2022. I do not recall the initial dose but I do remember that it was extremely effective right from the start. I have felt zero side effects from prednisone use, and a dxa scan a month or two ago showed normal bone density. I was lucky.
I started Kevzara in November of 2023. At the time I was at 5 mg prednisone (a split dose) with the pain under control. By the time I got down to 2 mg I was in moderate pain and also had difficulty using my right hand due to "severe" carpal tunnel syndrome. I had that fixed and my rheumy in consultation with my surgeon decided to bump me up to 20 mg briefly, followed by a fast taper. When I was back down to 5 mg I went to a regimen in which every other Sunday I took my Kezvara and dropped one mg, and finally on March 27 I took my last 1-mg pill...touch wood. No pain at present aside from normal old guy stuff. Am I in remission? Is the next step a taper off the Kezvara? TBD! No side effects from the Kezvara. Again, lucky.
Attached is my plot of the last few months of this journey, although my spreadsheet goes all the way back to December of 2022. I have found the plot to be a useful tool for seeing how things are going. If anybody is interested in this approach let me know and I will send you the spreadsheet. Just erase my data in the table and put in yours...the plot updates automatically.
Good luck...to all of us.

I am finally off of Prednisone after 2 years! I still have manageable pain -probably aches and pains from older age (63). I have been on Kevzara since October. Went to RA last week, will begin taper off Kevzara in 6 months. She states there is no known good exit strategy as the drug is fairly new. She will be attending conference in May and will be learning more about this. Slow and steady most likely-just like everything else. My weight is also slowly decreasing….due to Prednisone no longer being needed.

Love to hear that you have gotten off of Predisone. Sounds like Kevzara helped with your taper. How long were you on Kevzara when you finally got to 0mg. How much and how often did you taper?

Do you have any idea of what your kevzara tapering schedule and dosage will be?

I was on 16 mgs of prednisone since June 1st 2023, started Kevzara in July '23 and am currently at 20 mgs of prednisone due to a number of flares. Have tried tapering, got to 17mgs. but am back to 20 mg. So I have no idea if the Kevzara is doing anything!

I've been on Kevzara for 3 months now so thought I would offer a report. Methotrexate seemed to stop working and also elevated my liver enzymes. I was at 6 mg prednisone and felt like I needed to go higher when I started the Kevzara. I stayed on the Kev for 6 weeks without tapering the pred and gradually started feeling better. I then tapered down to 5 mg pred at a .5 mg decrease every 3 weeks. The shoulder pain that has been my main symptom for the 3+ years I've had this disease is significantly improved. My shoulders feel looser. I have had some episodes of pain in the fronts of my thighs at 2-3 AM but not for over a week now. At my M.D. appt. yesterday I had labs done and my white cell count is below normal and one of my liver enzymes is still elevated slightly but has come down since I got off the methotrexate. He wants to see me in 4 months and in the meantime I am to try tapering the prednisone .5 mg/month. The abnormal labs concern me but I'm cautiously optimistic. I also will have to reapply for cost assistance on the Kevzara at the end of the year, so there are money worries with that drug. Overall I'm glad I'm giving it a try.