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Better to be in some pain or better to up the dose of prednisone?
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Apr 13 9:13am | Replies (36)Comment receiving replies
My rheumy wants me off prednisone (me too) so has prescribed tapering from 10mg, 1mg every 2 weeks and before that from 15mg, 2.5mg every 2 weeks. I had relief at 12.5 and some at 10mg.
She suggested I go on leflunomide and I declined that option because of side effects and bc I read it could take up to 2 years to leave my system. After reading others who had relief with hydroxychloroquine, I asked to try that which I’m presently on but so far no results.
I can safely say, I’m not in remission but still following docs orders with tapering although I may slow down the tapering to 1se a month. Dunno. I did read when someone went off prednisone, they went on ibuprofen with some relief. Before I was diagnosed (it took a few months to get an appointment), I was getting some relief on ibuprofen, that wasn’t much different than being on prednisone. Which is the worst of the 2 evils?
Replies to "My rheumy wants me off prednisone (me too) so has prescribed tapering from 10mg, 1mg every..."
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I have memories of leflunomide and it wasn't that bad. I actually reduced my Prednisone dose quite a bit. Unfortunately, I had recurring infections when I was on Prednisone + Leflunomide.
My rhematologist didn't blame leflunomide only for the infections. She said the infections were caused by "too much immunosuppression." She was more diplomatic about what medication caused the infections. She said Prednisone shared some of the blame too.
Prednisone doesn't stay in your system very long but depending on how long your adrenals have been suppressed it can take a long time to get off Prednisone.
Only leflunomide was stopped because prednisone couldn't be stopped abruptly because my adrenals wouldn't recover anytime soon. My rheumatologist did confirm leflunomide would stay in my system for a long time after she stopped it. I had to be very careful about acquiring another infection for about a year after the antibiotics were stopped.