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Is This a Safe Taper as Prescribed by my doctor?
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: 10 hours ago | Replies (29)Comment receiving replies
Hello heals1225, I am sorry to hear that you are on this journey for the second time. I have been doing a lot of research for the last few years and that research states that the patients who come off steroids quickly initially are more likely to relapse. I do understand that you feel two years is a long time. 40% to 50% of patients have symptoms for over two years, and 25% have symptoms for over five years.
Regarding the taper, personally I would not set targets so far in advance. I too did this at my gp recommendations for the first year and a half and failed miserably. Today I would now do a taper one half an mg. I am presently on one and a half mg. So the first week I would do the new lower dose on Monday and Thursday. Then if I felt ok, the second week I would add another two days of the lower dose Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. Then in the third week I would do the new lower dose every day. Then see how you feel, if you feel okay just repeat the exercise when you are ready. If you feel a little more pain appearing just wait until it feels better.
When you reduce to a lower level, if it only feels a bit more painful try and sit it out for a couple of weeks and take painkillers. That may be all that is needed as your adrenals start to work again. Always remember that it is not slow if it works ! Hope this is of some help.
Replies to "Hello heals1225, I am sorry to hear that you are on this journey for the second..."
Thanks for your response @cavalryman . Your schedule seems a lot like @megzeng , so that gives me even more confidence to follow this schedule. Will keep you all posted! 😀
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"When you reduce to a lower level, if it only feels a bit more painful try and sit it out for a couple of weeks and take painkillers. That may be all that is needed as your adrenals start to work again. Always remember that it is not slow if it works ! Hope this is of some help."
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I agree with this! However, if the adrenals aren't ready to start working again there is nothing you can do except wait until they do. Mostly you have to hope and stay on a low dose of Prednisone until the adrenals decide to work again.
I had to sit it out on 3 mg for 6 months until an endocrinologist said my cortisol level improved.
Then she thought it "might be safe" to discontinue prednisone. During my wait, she implored me not to increase my prednisone dose unless I talked to her first.
Since I didn't seem to need Prednisone for PMR anymore AND my cortisol level was good I was able to do a 3-2-1-zero countdown taper. It was like all the stars had to be aligned for successful discontinuation of Prednisone.
One star might have been misaligned. I needed Prednisone again after my first attempt to discontinue Prednisone. My second attempt was successful but my second launch window didn't happen until several months later.
In my opinion, tapering off Prednisone is a bit like rocket science!