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2 year struggle to get off prednisone still hard to get from 3 to 2mg

Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: May 15 9:20am | Replies (39)
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@victoriab

Thanks for your response prednisone certainly relieved the pain but the side effects were intolerable, where I live in Aotearoa New Zealand I wasn't offered an alternative and our primary care doctors are only allowed to prescribe prednisone all other drugs require a specialist, unfortunately none of them offered me an alternative but a physician friend said you can swap over to hydrocortisone from prednisone once you are down to 5 mg prednisone and it is apparently more tolerable but by the time my primary care doctor and I found this out I was down to 3 mg and prepared to persevere and have just gone down to 2mg the withdrawal symptoms aren't as bad as they used to be. I am really pleased the treatment your rheumatologist suggested is working well for you. Victoria B

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Replies to "Thanks for your response prednisone certainly relieved the pain but the side effects were intolerable, where..."
DadCue | @dadcue | May 5 4:27am

Hydrocortisone was the suggestion I received when I got to 3 mg. It was just a suggestion and my endocrinologist said it would be okay to stay on prednisone if I wished.

I want to commend you for persevering. It was extremely difficult for me at those lower doses. I was so tempted to increase my prednisone dose when I was encouraged to do so. My endocrinologist supported me and said I could increase my dose if I 'felt the need.' She wanted to know about it preferably before I increased but she didn't require that I notify her first.

I hope you are getting the support you need. I had the advantage of being on an alternative medication that wasn't suppressing my adrenal function. That allowed me to taper off prednisone more easily but it was still extremely difficult.

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