KEVZARZ medication reaction

I’m going on my first year at PMR I finally got on the biologic Kevzara I’m now down to 2 mg of prednisone currently. Kevzara has been a game changer. I have experienced mouth sores and a few of my lips as well and I’m also pretty fatigued after the injection for a few days other than that the side effects have been okay

I'm scheduled to receive my first dose of kevzara on Friday. I'm down to 6mg prednisone and feeling the PMR, but nothing like before I started the prednisone. Any suggestions or thoughts on your first dose?

@laurienowak good to hear that the reduction of prednisone works. How quickly did you reduce prednisone? I have always done a very slow method when reducing and am a bit leery to go too quickly. Would appreciate your method of reducing.

@kjoed53 reminder, Kevzara can take up to 30 days to start working . With that said, I myself would not taper until I am/was pain free. 7 mg pred is where we seem to have trouble with taper, and adrenals. The Kevzara will help with taper. As I always say….if you can, don’t rush it.
PS: I stick to the not more than 10% reduction per taper.

@tweetypie13
If I didn't have SMM, I would agree. I was diagnosed with low to intermediate risk SMM on 25mg prednisone. The risk could be significantly higher, even to the point of active myeloma because of the prednisone suppression. My hematologist-oncologist needs to see my blood work at or under 5mg for the prednisone effect to be considered insignificant and at zero for 100% accuracy. My next blood work is Aug 4. Unfortunately I have to put priority on the SMM for the risk factor. I really appreciate your input and concern. It is what makes this forum so important!

@kjoed53 I administered my first dose of Kevzara this morning. I was on 10mg prednisone, but trying 9 today for taper. Have had pain for the past month.

@eparnold0219
Hopefully it starts working. I started feeling the pain when I reached 10mg and I'm feeling it more at 6mg, especially in my hips. I opted to go down 0.5mg every 4 days instead of the 1mg decrease every week or so, but I'm on a fast taper. I know it doesn't work immediately, but let's hope for some relief now. Let me know how you feel next week.

@lynnfromoro

hi there I was diagnosed late July of last year so almost a year and I started off with 20 mg of prednisone. My rheumatologist had me take 10 mg in the a.m. and 10 mg in the p.m. as I started to pair down I did have a good handful of flareups. I would have to go back and add 1 mg. It took me a long time to do the prednisone dance and I agree pairing down too quickly caused flareups. I spend my winter months in St George Utah and that rheumatologist there recommended Kevzara. I was reluctant at first but I did a little research. it’s a biologic” which I understand is better for you” it seemed like it would help me get off the prednisone sooner which it has. I didn’t have a flareup after I started that drug.

under the guidance of my St George rheumatologistI got in the routine of pairing down my prednisone every two weeks & I eliminated 1 mg each time and then I would take a injection of kevzara every two weeks as well that seemed to help get me lower and lower on the prednisone. currently I’m down to 1 mg at night and 1 mg in the evening I’m back in Colorado and I’m seeing the other rheumatologist today. There are side effects to both drugs for sure. The hard part for me is how tired I feel. I believe that’s because of the cortisol issues I hope that helps?
🩷laurie

Thank you for that information. It has helped me make some decisions about reducing. Look forward to hear how you are doing.