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@heals1225

Hey @megz
I am currently on 8 mg/day.
Starting April 1st I am going to 7 mg/day and will use your method. At what point do you or anyone else recommend I start with .5 mg reduction per month? I have been on prednisone now for close to two years, and this is my second bout, the first one being in 2014 and lasting 2 years. This time I got down to 2 mg/day as recently as December but then had major flairs that brought me back up to 10 mg/ day. Any suggestions on when to start the .5 mg reduction? Thank you!

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Replies to "Hey @megz I am currently on 8 mg/day. Starting April 1st I am going to 7..."

I'm hardly one to be giving you advice if you got down to 2mg in December. I'm currently on 5mg and will start a graduated taper to 4.5mg in a few days. I've reduced by .5mg since 10mg, as the rule of thumb is to reduce prednisone by no more than 10% of the dose at a time.

The best teacher of what we should do is our own experience. The pace you've reduced successfully in the past will tell you how to do it this time. My own experience has told me to be extra careful approaching where a flare has occurred in the past and to be prepared to slow the reductions and make them more gradual at that point. Fortunately, this time I cruised past 6.5mg where the previous flare occurred, by using the graduated reduction. My doctor has told me not to hesitate to take an extra week on a particular reduction if I need to. I haven't done that so far, but have it up my sleeve just in case.