Tapering prednisone

Everyone is so different that question would be hard to answer. Severity of the disease, Length of time on steroids, your exercise, stress level, diet, other auto immune conditions, your overall health. All are contributing factors. Prednisone can have life long side effects. Your Dr is good here to help figure out. The idea just as you have attempted is to find the lowest possible dose. I would say with some discomfort just to be at your lowest. You should continue to try to move that bar. You should probably go to 20mg for a couple days. The prednisone acts very quickly. Then try to get back to 15mg or 12mg fairly quickly. After 2 weeks your body has shut down production of cortisol since the prednisone is supplying it. Get comfortable at 15mg before going to 12 this time. Slow the taper. PMR can take some time to burn out. Mine took 6 months. But many have trouble for years.

I've had issues dropping first below 10 MG and then below 9, aches and pains galore in my journey from 15 MG. Major flareup of something in February (I also have Smoldering Myeloma). It calmed after a few weeks. My last 2 reductions (to 6 and then to 5) went seamlessly. I've been dropping a MG each month. So I'm hopeful can reduce more. Seeing my rheumatologist late this month, see what she says.

Thank you for advice

From 10 to 5, I tapered at 1 per month. Most random discomforts were during this period.
From 5 to zero, at 0.5 per month. Very few incidents of random pain.
Below 10, never tempted to delay the taper or increase the dose. Tylenol, an an occasional 125 Ibuprofen (once I was below 3, and wirh docs agreement/permission) worked for me.
If possible, try to not start chasing random pains with varying doses of prednisone.
Good luck. Some is needed.

I decided to suffer a bit with my PMR and tried not to increase, started at 15. Keep active, take some Tylenol is one avenue. All depends on how much it gets in the way of life, like if you can still get out of bed and function. This is going to go on for many months.

Just to add my two cents worth. When I got off Prednisone I still had aches and pains galore. The pain is "tolerable" and I haven't needed Prednisone for years. It helps when the pain is accounted for and there is an explanation for the pain.

My rheumatologist says I have a "full range of things" which cause pain. She asks me if I need "something" for pain. She isn't referring to prednisone like I took for years. She says there are plenty of other options to relieve pain.

I'm not a glutton for pain. Knowing what causes the pain and that there are other options besides prednisone allows me to live with my pain. Knowing the options gives me more of an idea about how much pain I can tolerate. I have been advised that surgical intervention is a better option but rather than having surgery ... I choose to live with the pain.

PMR pain had no explanation for the cause and it would hurt for absolutely no reason. When Prednisone relieved the pain it reinforced my thinking that it must be PMR.

My thinking was completely wrong. Prednisone decreases the inflammation that causes pain. There are an infinite number of things that cause inflammation and the vast majority aren't PMR.

I agree with @art43 --- "If possible, try to not start chasing random pains with varying doses of prednisone." Do communicate with your doctor if these random pains bother you too much.

I remember reading advice on the internet to increase Prednisone for "niggles of pain." That advice is totally wrong unless a medical professional agrees the niggles are PMR. Most of the time even the medical professionals won't know for sure, However, they have the tools to investigate the cause of these aches and pains rather than assuming it is PMR.

I just want to say how helpful these discussions are. I titrated up from 1 mg to 8 mg to find the sweet spot of no pain. But the side effects of the prednisone (three months worth) make me crazy and I'm titrating down and I want off if I can without the weakness and stiffness in my shoulders that brought me here. I'm at 7 now, taking it slow while hating the weight gain, jitteriness, fat face, and general yuck. Thanks for all the lived experience expressed in your shares.

"I titrated up from 1 mg to 8 mg to find the sweet spot of no pain."
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No pain was nice but that shouldn't be the goal of long term prednisone. I fell for that trap too many times especially at 7 mg or less of prednisone.

My symptoms weren't like my PMR symptoms when I was originally diagnosed with PMR. Certainly, being unable to lift my arms wasn't a problem except initially when I was diagnosed. Prednisone relieved so much pain but so much of it wasn't PMR as I assumed.

After I was able to get off prednisone, so many things needed to be addressed and treated by "other means" instead of prednisone. As long as the pain was relieved by prednisone ... I didn't want to have things investigated as they should have been. I remember the day when I sat smugly at my rheumatology visit after increasing my prednisone dose substantially.

When I was in such extreme pain, I couldn't wait for my MRI results. My rheumatolgist reviewed the MRI with me and said I had severe spinal stenosis in my lumbar spine. She wouldn't have recommended so much prednisone but she was happy my excruciating pain stopped.

My only defense was that I didn't know what was causing the pain and I had to do something.

I’m tapering and taking a similar approach. I take Tylenol instead of increasing my dose so I can stay on the taper schedule. My doctor did not explain the long term prognosis when I was diagnosed. I had no idea it would be a long journey with many ups and downs. Most of what I’ve learned is from this forum..and a huge thanks to all of you.

I started prednisone at 10mg. My tapering schedule is reducing 1mg every 4 weeks. From what I’ve read here, many startreducing by .5mg. I was doing great until 7mg when I started to feel fatigue, discomfort in one shoulder, pelvis and back of legs. I’m wondering if the schedule is too fast, maybe I should be reducing by .5. So far the discomfort is manageable but I’m nothing close to feeling myself.