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← Return to Tapering off of Prednisone
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Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Feb 28 5:49am | Replies (313)
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Everything I have read (on two other PMR web sites) and been told (by my rheumatologist) is that it is important not to taper too quickly. Experts on the web sites say your pain should be minimal or non-existent before you reduce your dose and the reduction should not be more than 1-2 mg. at a time. Check out the PMRGCAuk section of healthunlocked.com (an excellent UK web site) and the PMR community on stuffthatworks.health (especially posts by Ed582, a physician who also has PMR). I hope this is helpful.
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Thank-you ... I will check out what ED582 has to say. To my knowledge, nobody on the other web site is a physician.
I have always been told to taper slowly so nothing new about that. My problem was I could never taper off prednisone no matter how slowly I went.
My doctors were very patient with me until they told me that I was too young to take prednisone for the rest of my life. I was 64 years old at the time so not that young.
I was diagnosed with PMR at the age of 52. More than 12 years on prednisone was an extremely long time to allow me to taper off. I didn't ever want to be on prednisone that long and my quality of life was getting more dismal with each additional year. I rather liked prednisone in the start of PMR for the fast pain relief.
Fortunately, a rheumatologist wanted to try a new approach but didn't offer me any guarantees that it would work. The new approach exceeded everyone's expectations including mine. I was able to taper off prednisone quickly. I went from 10 mg to 3 mg in 4 months. My rheumatologist wanted me to stop tapering at 3 mg. An endocrinologist helped me for an additional 4 months after I reached 3 mg and I eventually reached zero.
Not everything went according to a fixed plan because I needed to go back to 60 mg at one stage. Being off prednisone uncovered an old problem that had been dormant for 12 years. That problem wasn't expected at all. Fortunately, after some adjustments were made, I tapered off prednisone again. I went from 60 mg back to zero in less than a year the second time.