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Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Dec 6, 2023 | Replies (21)
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A recent painful lesson. Flares are complicated. With a drop from 8mg to 7mg of prednisone I had a horrible flare. Very painful. So I thought well I’ll just go back up to 8mg and the flare will go away. NOPE. Then up to 10, 15, and now 20mg before the pain subsided again. In the meanwhile my inflammation numbers exploded again. The extra slow taper under 10mg of prednisone is really important. Maybe even 1/2mg at a time. What caused the flare besides the drop in prednisone, probably a high level of stress. A change in diet can help. Hard to avoid stress right now.
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Stress...interesting. I've read about temporary small rises in prednisone being recommended in times of stress and illness. I can see how you might have been more likely to flare with that reduction plus the stress, and dropping by a full 1mg rather than .5mg at a time. What a pain that it didn't come good with a small dosage rise. Maybe the stress affected that too.
When I had bronchitis a couple of months ago, my doc said not to proceed with the planned reduction, to delay it by a week. I'm sure it helped to wait a bit, to feel good before reducing further.