Down to 1mg prednisone and then extreme fatigue sets in.

Waaaaay outside any norm.
Be careful, and aware of adrenal insufficiency and adrenal crisis. Unless I am missing something, I agree with the “…disaster waiting to happen” reply by someone else.
If possible, you should get a second opinion stat.

Yes, attempting to cut a 1mg tablet into quarters would be frustrating and inaccurate. A reduction with alternating day doses of 2mg & 1.5mg would give a .25mg drop.

This is my planned drop from 2mg to 1.5mg. Week 2 is a .25mg drop. I put it on the calendar each reduction and the weekly meds are made up from the calendar. (Not down to 2mg yet. Currently reducing to 3mg, week 3.)
Week 1: 2 / 1.5 / 2 / 2 / 1.5 / 2 / 2
Week 2: 1.5 / 2 / 1.5 / 2 / 1.5 / 2 / 1.5
Week 3: 1.5 / 2 / 1.5 / 1.5 / 2 / 1.5 / 1.5
Week 4: Stay on 1.5mg to stabilise

Yes sir I am. The quarter -sized pills are the risers on my steps. I don’t stay on them long (maybe 4 days or so depending on how I’m feeling) and then settle into my new tread before descending once again. If you follow my metaphor, the steps are suitable for a walker (i.e., steps are long and wide, but not tall).

I was diagnosed with PMR end November 2024. I am currently on 8mg of prednisone per day. I was stuck on 10mg for over 2 months. I then started taking Magnesium ( liquid not tablets) every morning & cod liver oil (liquid) & my journey to 8 mg was easy & relatively painless. I am ready to move on to 7mg & I do feel that taking those supplements have helped me enormously. I am able to take part in aqua aerobics, walking & the gym.
Good luck to everybody fighting this one, the key is to taper very slowly.

To heals1225

Your current taper plan of 0.5 per month for the last 5 worked just fine to get me to zero four months ago.
You will probably have some transient pains as your adrenals hopefully resume full production.
Hope it works for you. Good luck.

OA is usually diagnosed with imaging…x-ray or ultrasound.
Good luck.

So happy for you Art! 😀

Hi @megz Am about to start my .5 mg tapering July 1st using your schedule. Just wondering if you were successful getting to 0 mg or are still tapering. I’m a bit anxious rn as June on 5 mg per day has not been a good month for me. Some days are better than others, but many quite painful mornings and my fingers are also quite stiff in the morning as well. Hope you have been doing well!

Maybe you could consider staying on 5mg a week or two more to stabilise before reducing further? It may help. I started the .5mg reductions from 7mg, so it's been a bit slower than your last few reductions of a whole mg in a month.

Once your 5mg pain has resolved, have you thought of splitting the dose to better control morning pain? You may not want to change your dose habits at this stage, but I've been splitting the dose and taking 1mg of my daily dose in the early evening, with no morning pain at all. I figure if I have no pain, it will be easier to notice any new pain. So far, only occasional slight passing aches at the beginning of some of the reductions.

I'm at 3mg and will start the 3-4wk reduction to 2.5mg in a few days.

Thanks Meg, that makes sense for me not to continue tapering today. This morning my pain is not good and to reduce my dosage only creates fear in having same or even more severe morning pain. Since 5 mg for June was never a comfortable dosage for me I am actually considering taking 5 mg this morning and 1 additional mg this evening. I really don’t want to increase my dosage but I feel like I have no choice. Maybe just for one or two weeks and see what happens. Thanks for your advice as it is good to know we have have support from people who know what we’re going through.