@pmrnew

You seem to be cutting your dose in half every 7 days. I don't know if that will work or not because it is a fast taper. After you reach 10 mg it is usually recommended to taper by 1 mg per month. As far as 1.25 mg being a low enough dose for your adrenal glands to begin to produce cortisol again... my endocrinologist said 3 mg was a low enough dose if I could maintain that dose for long time. I needed to be on a low dose and allow for time for my adrenals to produce an "adequate" amount of cortisol for my daily needs. Whether or not my adrenals could produce enough cortisol in an emrgency situation was unknown.

The time it takes for the adrenals to "fully recover" depends on many factors. For me, it took 6 months on 3 mg for my cortisol level to improve. It took another year of being off prednisone until I felt like my adrenals were fully recovered. This was my experience after being on prednisone for 12 byears.

There was the issue of PMR pain coming. back when I stayed on a low dose of prednisone. I was taking a biologic while I stayed on 3 mg of prednisone so PMR was well controlled.