1. < Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR)

Can you split Prednisone dose for GCA?

Posted by isabelle7 @isabelle7, Feb 26 8:20am

My husband has giant cell arteritis and PMR. Is Dr. insists he cannot split his 80 mg dose for GCA and must take it all at once. His experience with PMR was dosing in the morning and in the evening, which worked. Dosing only one time a day did not work for him, he was getting repeated headaches at night, and ended up in the ER. They gave him three days of 1200 mg steroid IV infusions and right now his pain is gone. And he is able to sleep. However, tomorrow he begins one time a day dosing again at 80 mg and we are hoping the headaches do not return. Has anyone split a dose for GCA and had positive results? And was the doctor OK with it?

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isabelle7 | @isabelle7 | Mar 7 1:01pm
In reply to @mtr2601 "My Doctor warned me that taking Calcium supplements alone can be a problem. It isnt well..." + (show)
@mtr2601

My Doctor warned me that taking Calcium supplements alone can be a problem. It isnt well absorbed by the body and can leave deposits in blood vessels and kidneys. Better to get it from your diet. Not as much of a problem if taken in combination with vit D3 and K2, not sure why ?

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I asked also and my doctor said the same thing about calcium. So we are making sure he’s getting it in his diet. We are getting a second opinion later this month regarding my husband’s future treatment of GCA as well as some concerns we have. We were very fortunate to be able to get an appointment with the Chief of Rheumatology.

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isabelle7 | @isabelle7 | Mar 7 4:02pm
In reply to @emo "Hmm. I’m not sure why she’d say no, unless maybe she meant it wasn’t an absolute..." + (show)
@emo

Hmm. I’m not sure why she’d say no, unless maybe she meant it wasn’t an absolute must? I don’t see how that could be harmful unless you take too much calcium. Vitamin D would be hard to over-do.

My father is taking Fosomax to prevent bone loss and he was already prescribed a multivitamin that includes calcium and vitamin D because he’s mostly on tube feeding.

I’d be interested to see what they say.

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We're getting a 2nd opinion later in the month. I'll let you know what the new doc has to say about this. We managed to get an appointment with the Chief of Rheumatology after speaking up loudly about some concerns we had on the treatment plan and because there was a delay in the doc even believing he could have GCA even though he had all the symptoms other than vision loss.

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galyn | @galyn | Jun 21 6:25am

I don't have experience with GCA. My Dr. had originally told me to take my dose all at once in the morning. His reason was because it could effect my sleep if I took it at night. The trouble was if I took it all in the morning it would wear off during my sleep and then I be awake, in pain, and had already taken my daily dose. I've since split my dose and take half in the morning and half before bed. It's working very well for me.
I would speak with your Dr and ask why it needs to be taken all at once. I believe that's the general recommendation but every person/situation needs to be evaluated for what works best.

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isabelle7 | @isabelle7 | Jun 21 8:48am
In reply to @galyn "I don't have experience with GCA. My Dr. had originally told me to take my dose..." + (show)
@galyn

I don't have experience with GCA. My Dr. had originally told me to take my dose all at once in the morning. His reason was because it could effect my sleep if I took it at night. The trouble was if I took it all in the morning it would wear off during my sleep and then I be awake, in pain, and had already taken my daily dose. I've since split my dose and take half in the morning and half before bed. It's working very well for me.
I would speak with your Dr and ask why it needs to be taken all at once. I believe that's the general recommendation but every person/situation needs to be evaluated for what works best.

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@galyn

Thanks for your response. We have since changed rheumatologists and the new one said to definitely split the dose, even for GCA, because a person shouldn't even be taking 80 mg all at once daily. So we split the dose and his issues resolved. He's tapered down now to 20 mg and is on Actemra which helps in the tapering. So glad you don't have GCA!!

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1 reply
galyn | @galyn | Jun 21 9:08am
In reply to @isabelle7 "@galyn Thanks for your response. We have since changed rheumatologists and the new one said to..." + (show)
@isabelle7

@galyn

Thanks for your response. We have since changed rheumatologists and the new one said to definitely split the dose, even for GCA, because a person shouldn't even be taking 80 mg all at once daily. So we split the dose and his issues resolved. He's tapered down now to 20 mg and is on Actemra which helps in the tapering. So glad you don't have GCA!!

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I'm so glad you found a solution. 🥰

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