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Have you tried splitting the dose to take a smaller part of the daily prednisone in the late afternoon or early evening? That has kept mornings pain-free for me and many others. The main dose is still in the morning, and the second dose must be smaller so as not to affect sleep or to upset the natural cortisol cycle that has cortisol highest in the morning. My current dose is 6mg a day which I split to 5mg in the morning and 1mg with dinner around 6pm. A small change to how you take your prednisone can make a big difference.
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I started with AM/PM doses but after seeing Rheumatologist they switched me to solely an AM dose of 20mg. Been doing AM only for 2 months. It’s hopeful for me to see in your comments that there are improvements over time. I’m certainly not feeling that as I’ve been tapering this short amount of time.
Thanks
The Last 2 months it’s been just the AM dose. They moved PM due to sleep issues.
I had minimal pain with 30mg. But since we started the tapering it has been hard.
I’m at 20 now and dropping to 17.5 on Thursday.
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Absolutely agree with @megz. I was diagnosed 1 1/2 years ago, also at age 63. Started at 20mg and was very stiff and with 5/10 pain in the AM and feeling better at lunch. After a week or so, I talked with my PCP (who diagnosed the PMR) and we decided to split the dose. Started with 10 in the AM and PM, then moved to taking 2/3 in the AM and 1/3 in PM. This has worked very well for me. I was down to 5.5mg this past September and had a bit of a setback and jumped back to 8.5. I am currently at 6.5 (4.5 and and 2 PM) and doing much better. I'm currently tapering .5mg every 20 days and keeping my fingers crossed.
Hope this helps!