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← Return to Tapering off of Prednisone
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Hi @bardy1953, Welcome to Connect. That's a great question and the answer might be easier than you think. You will notice that we moved your post to an existing discussion on the same topic here:
-- Tapering off of Prednisone:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/prednisone/
The biggest qualifier is that each of us have different levels of acceptable pain and what I've always been told by my rheumatologist was that I should listen to my body when I'm tapering. If it were me I would try to go down by 1 mg a month. With my first occurrence of PMR it took me 3 and half years to taper off and the last six months were going back and forth between 1 mg and 1/2 mg until I could finally stop taking it without much pain.
@flymetothemoon @sharb @biblern @tsc @suetex @barbararene and others may also have some thoughts on tapering off of 3 mg prednisone.
How long have you been on prednisone?
Replies to "Hi @bardy1953, Welcome to Connect. That's a great question and the answer might be easier than..."
Hi @bardy1953, I initially was put on 40 mg of prednisone for Giant Cell Arteritis in late May 2021. When I got down to 3 mg, my rheumatologist suggested I stay on it for a month, then taper down to 2 mg for a month, then 1 mg for a month, then .5 mg for a month. I'm now down to .5mg every other day until my pills run out.
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Took almost 3 years and got down to 1/2 mg. Having pain again, so now I'm taking 1 mg every other day and hopefully will stay at 1/2 and then get off. I don't think this pain will go away so quickly. I also have Celebrex when its bad. I do think stress can contribute to this so it's important to find ways to minimize that stress. It's a journey for sure.