PCP advising fast taper

That seems like too fast of a taper to me. I was taking 2 4mg methylpredisone a day for 2 months. When my inflamation went away my rhuematologist started tapering with alternating 2 one day ane one the next for 2 months. I will have a blood check in august. When I asked him why not taper to 1 every day he said oh no no no, that is too fast.

Hi again Dad,

Missed your messages. I apologize for not staying more interested…just quite disappointed in this latest journey and treatment.
Wonder why these rheumatologists here can’t get on the same page. No one has talked to me about my adrenals or cortisol numbers. The latest Rheum. has me down to 4 mg/month from 20 mg which was advised in recent flares by both family PA and Rheum decreasing by 1mg per month. There was a lot of up and down dosage of prednisone. Of course I’m ecstatic to be so low but what next? PTH and calcium finally normal after concern about hyperparathyroidism. Reclast hangover he said. That was the endocrinologist. I asked the new rheumatologist how much pain do you want me to have before I stop the taper? He said to call, I did and sed rate is back up to 29, CRP was normal. Sed rate in 8-9 years has never been above 36 so he says it’s not PMR. Had Toradol injection yesterday, only made me nauseous and headache with some pain relief in shoulders and neck. The jaw locking and vision is stable, but tooth pain and headaches come and go. The nodules are still present in wrists, now 13mm in right lower lung. Incidental finding in CT-Abd for kidney stones. Wonder if side effect from Methotrexate which no doctor will speak about with me. Interesting you have stones too!
Allergic to Kevzara so not wanting anymore biologics. Mine were all self inject except for Reclast. One of them did seem to help the hand and large muscle pain but would cause another issue.
Thank you for any ideas/comments or suggestions you might have. Anyone else too!
Karo

Interesting reading these last few posts regarding GP’s, rheumatologists, and geriatric doctors. I have actually received more info from my GP, than from rheumatologist regarding the dosage and tapering of prednisone. It does help that I have know my GP since we were 10 (69 now), and he listens well. He will probably retire in a few years and I (hopefully 😳😁) will need to look for new doctor. Never thought of geriatric specialist. Getting back to the reason for this string, he advised me to taper a mg every other day. I know this was mentioned before somewhere on site but hearing it again helps. I am at 10mg now and will start 9 today (5 and 4 as I found splitting dose was best for me) and then 10mg tomorrow and so on. Will touch base later in month for update on pain or flare ups.

I was on prednisone for about a year and 1/2. Started at 20 mg, took about 8 months to get to 10 and 10 more months to get to 0. I was was bouncing around from 2-5 because of pain for a while. I saw the PA at my Rhuemy's in April and he said that I no longer needed to be on any pred so I stopped, went to 2 mg to 0 in a day w/o issues.

I was lucky to have both a GP and rheumatologist that I appreciated and respected.

I'm eternally grateful to my ophthalmalmologist who saved me from being blind numerous times -- it is incredible to me that my vision is still reasonably good.

The same ophthalmologist did my lens implant surgery many years ago because of cataracts from prednisone. I remember how devastated I was when I had cataracts at a very young age. My ophthalmologist just said the lens in my eye could be replaced and they would be good as new. I was reassured that I didn't need to worry about cataracts from prednisone anymore.

Even an endocrinologist was instrumental in getting me off prednsione and spared me from an adrenal crisis during knee replacement surgery.

I could continue but suffice it to say I am grateful for all my health care providers.

Glad to hear this … not knowing the protocol attempted dropping quicker from 20mg than I should have. Ping ponged back and forth from 18 to 15 to 12 and then got froggy and went to 10 then 5 then 2… MISTAKE… no pain in original spots but got so bad in hands and knees went back to 15 … all in about 5 months (no one really told me how do do this other than don’t drop too large a dosage… so I didn’t but I’d dropped one or two mg’s every 6/7 days). That wasn’t advisable either. Anyway looking at your post I seem to be (hopefully) on same trajectory as you. Your post does give me some direction. Thanks

I’m encouraged by your taper. I have been on prednisone for 7 months but the taper has been too fast. I am managing the pain with Tylenol but will probably go back to 4 or 5 mg for a while. My doctor says it time to get off.

4 and 5 is when it starts to get harder. Took several weeks to feel stable with each reduction. I did 1mg reduction month at a time. stretching and exercise and a few cold swims can help. The kinds of things one would normally do for tired achy muscles. When I had been on 1mg for two weeks My rheum put me on 1mg every other day for the last two weeks. And then it takes a few weeks at zero for my body to give up looking for prednisone. Cheers.