Feeling Stuck at 7mg Prednisone

Don't skip your morning dose. Just take whatever dose you took today and carry on with your usual dose tomorrow. Let your doctor know what happened on Monday and how you felt on the extra prednisone.

I think many people have problems tapering lower than 7 mg.

Speaking from my own personal experience, the 7 mg dose is a tough dose to get past. I think adrenal insufficiency was most of my problem. After I transitioned to a medication that wasn't prednisone and didn't suppress my adrenal function, I blew right past 7 mg. However, it wasn't possible to confirm secondary adrenal insufficiency and a low cortisol level until I reached 3 mg of prednisone.

Thanks. I did get to 6.5 but at day 3 had to go back to 7. So disappointing. I appreciate the info and will let my doctor know at my next appointment.

I understand how it is. My rheumatologist once said I should call her before increasing my dose. I was at 7 mg for a week and called her every day Mon-Fri to say the pain was getting worse. She responded as soon as she could and suggested possible reasons for why the pain was getting worse. She was interested in what was going on. That particular time I did exactly what she told me to do. She asked me to try some things before increasing my dose. She wasn't angry when I called on Monday to say I went back to 10 mg. Usually I would wait to my next appointment.

My rheumatologist always seemed to understand the difficulty I was having. She never seemed angry when I increased my dose. She just wanted me to keep her in the loop in regards to my Prednisone dose.

for what it's worth. me2

I tried to tough it out at 7 mg and ended up back at 11. It’s taken me a full year since then to get down to 8.
Slow going but worth it to go slow I guess.

My current experience is this:
Tapered from 10 to 5 at 1 per month, then at 0.5 per month to current 4.
For at least one week after any reduction, there has been random pain sometimes up to level 3 on scale of 10. I have never increased my dose. Generally, after one week, the pains are gone and stay that way until the next taper.
It would appear that my adrenals take a week or so to increase cortisol production and put the pain problem back in the box. This appears to be ideal progress.
If you increase prednisone to deal with “pain niggles” (DadCue’s excellent term), you will probably be delaying the resumption of cortisol production by your adrenals.
After PMR is in remission, pain is most often NOT PMR pain and should be treated with something other than prednisone. The textbook solution seems to Tylenol while still on prednisone, and NSAID’s afterward.
Become knowledgeable from medical sources, be your own best advocate, and work with your doc to find something that works for you. Best of luck.

I haven't seen many people who taper the way I do, but it's working well for me. I hear you about taking the wrong dose, it's something I'm very careful about. I have been tapering at the rate of 0.25mg (a quarter of a 1mg tablet) per week since I was on 7mg. It's has been relatively easy, I know after 3 days on the lower dose if I will be able reduce it again. Some weeks I stretch it out to 10 days and when I had a flare at 5.5mg, I stretched it out to 2 weeks and slightly increased the Plaquinil. I'm now down to 4.5mg Prednisone. The pain is not completely gone but my strength is starting to return, my endurance in daily activities is improving and I feel more like the person I was before this hit. I also take a morning and evening dose of prednisone and as I reduce the 0.25mg, i take it off the morning dose one week and the afternoon dose the next week, to keep the ratio even.

It wasn't my term. I first heard about niggles on another forum. I wasn't sure what they were talking about but sometimes the advice was to take more prednisone. I tried to dispute the idea that being "pain free" was the goal when on prednisone. I didn't think more prednisone for niggles was a good idea. Your recommendations are much better in my opinion.

A couple of videos that might be helpful in explaining niggles. Neither one is a medical resource though.

I like this guy the best:

This lady goes into more of the details. She makes an exception for people with chronic pain so she doesn't exclude anyone.
https://www.google.com/search?q=definition+video+of+niggles+of+pain&sca_esv=01d6c239d929f566&sca_upv=1&rlz=1CAJPEZ_enUS988&sxsrf=ADLYWILX9BCzBaagbcJoMPqoO6WlhH0bkg%3A1720296978317&ei=EqaJZtL_Eqqy0PEP9dSO6AU&ved=0ahUKEwjS0LPSnZOHAxUqGTQIHXWqA10Q4dUDCA8&uact=5&oq=definition+video+of+niggles+of+pain&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiI2RlZmluaXRpb24gdmlkZW8gb2YgbmlnZ2xlcyBvZiBwYWluMggQABiABBiiBEi1NFDgGliDJnABeAGQAQCYAXygAbMEqgEDNC4yuAEDyAEA-AEBmAIHoALhBMICChAAGLADGNYEGEfCAgQQIRgKwgIHECMYsAIYJ8ICCBAhGKABGMMEwgIKECEYoAEYwwQYCpgDAIgGAZAGCJIHAzQuM6AHww8&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:41fb739c,vid:yoMuMMUeCig,st:43

What other medication are you on to help lower your prednisone?
Thanks and what dosage?