Advice on managing PMR.

Posted by johnhester @johnhester, Apr 11 9:27am

I am 88 years old and in fair health. I am looking for advice on how others have managed PMR. I am now taking Prednisone 15 mg with no known side effects. I plan to reduce dosage to 12.5 mg for a week and then if no pain further reduce to 10.0 mg for a while. Any advice?
John

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Autoimmune Diseases Support Group.

You are on an appropriate dose of prednisone. It is best to wean off slowly
in smaller increments over a period of months. This will be guided by how you are feeling with instructions from your doctor. Side effects are manageable if you keep monitoring your blood pressure and metabolic tests at their office.
It sounds like you are responding if you are anxious to lower your dose.
It is better to go down gradually to avoid having to bump up higher again.

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@johnhester Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect! I’m so glad you found the site. You’ve asked a great question and I’ sure members, Like @seniormed , will happily answer your questions. If you have any other questions, be sure to ask them!

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@seniormed

You are on an appropriate dose of prednisone. It is best to wean off slowly
in smaller increments over a period of months. This will be guided by how you are feeling with instructions from your doctor. Side effects are manageable if you keep monitoring your blood pressure and metabolic tests at their office.
It sounds like you are responding if you are anxious to lower your dose.
It is better to go down gradually to avoid having to bump up higher again.

Jump to this post

Thanks

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@johnhester, There are a couple of other discussions you might find helpful for managing PMR.

--- PMR Dosages and Managing Symptoms: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pmr-dosages/
--- PMR and exercise: What helps you?: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pmr-and-exercise/

One thing that helped me when tapering off of prednisone for both of my occurrences of PMR was a suggestion from my rheumatologist to keep a daily log of the level of my pain when I wake up and my prednisone dose for that day. Do you keep a daily log?

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Glad you are having no side effects thus far and hope you wind up with none. Do pay attention there are many possibilities.
As far as tapering, do get guidance from your doctor - we all want to get off medicine but this particular one is slower better. Your formula is similar to my first taper, that I was guided on by my doc and my last dosage of 2 1/2 mg for 3 weeks and stopping reacted in 3 days of no prednisone I began to cripple up - got bloodwork and my numbers indicated a flare. Back on as instructed by doc to 7 1/2 for one week and report how I felt. First 2 days on that dose I thought good - until truthfully it was not really, just wishing with my fingers crossed. Admitted it to my doc and wound up on 10 for a week - had to report back on that and it did make it right. The doc said go down 1 mg and if that’s good, in one month go down to 8mg. This is now each month down 1mg and it’s working. Notify each month what I dropped to and after the end of 1 week let the doc know how I’m doing and the date of my next drop, etc.

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Hi John, we're all different. But I believe you are reducing to 12.5 mg too quickly. Based on my body, it took almost 2 months to adjust. I took 15 mg one day and 12.5 the next. I hope it works for you.

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Thanks for your advice.

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