How did you cope with the side effects tapering off prednisone?

Finally, after 3-1/2 years on Prednisone and several flare-ups, I am today down to my last 1 mg. tablet. I was actually down to 1 mg for a couple of weeks when I had a flare up and the Rheumy put me back to 5 mgs. with a taper every three days. Today is my last pill. Wish me luck. I'll let you know how it goes.

Good luck to you. I hope your remission goes forever👍

Excuse the humor but I cried, yelled, moaned and generally behaved like a spoilt child. Then after a nice hug by my man I took a deep breath and made a cup of coffee then went back a step with my daily prednisone. After a month or two I tried again. If that didn't work I repeated and then it worked each time. Until they come out with a sure fire treatment I guess this is the way it goes, at lest for me. Right now I have dropped one quarter of a ml. to 1 1/4 ml daily This has been working to the point that I can't say I'm sure if my aches and stiffness are PMR rather or old age. I see my rheumatologist in December, sooner if I feel the need. I am hoping I will be off Prednisone by then, That will be the best Christmas present ever. It's been a long and hard journey but I have learnt a lot about living and about myself. I feel stronger and smarter now than I did four years ago. Keep on keeping on friends, Your light at the end of the tunnel is there, even if you can't quite see it yet.

You sound as if you are winning. I played around with that last milligram for 6 weeks and then dropped it. The result I can live with. I have stiffness in my fingers until mid day, so it must still be the residuals of PMR. I have lingering weakness in my arms and legs, but there again, it could be the result of not enoough exercise and movement during the two years of coping with the pain of PMR. Either way, I am glad to have made it through and happy for you!

I was down to 3 mg and told to stay on that dose for an extended period of time. I didn't follow instructions exactly and I played around with my dose but I stay near 3 mg most of the time. I would do 3 - 2 - 1 - zero countdown tapers over one week just to see what would happen. I can't say I felt good but I wanted to challenge my adrenals to see what they were capable of doing. I felt deathly fatigue but nothing remotely like an adrenal crisis happened.

I was only able to get down to 3 mg because I was taking injections of Actemra every 2 weeks. Actemra kept PMR flares in check.

My endocrinologist was the one who wanted me to stay on 3 mg for 6 months. I told her about the count down tapers I did. She still wanted my a.m cortisol level checked before stopping prednisone completely. My cortisol level was "adequate" so she said it might be safe to discontinue prednisone. I played around some more before I stopped prednisone. I was reasonable certain that I wouldn't have a flare of PMR.

Nobody anticipated a flare of uveitis and I needed 60 mg of prednisone again. That was devastating to me but it all worked out in the end. A different biologic was tried for uveitis but I couldn't taper off prednisone. I was stuck on 15 mg of prednisone again with increasing amounts of PMR like body pain while on Humira.

When Actemra was restarted with weekly injections instead of very 2 weeks, I tapered from 15 mg of prednisone to zero again is 2-3 months.

I am so happy for you. I hope you are prednisone free by Christmas. Please keep us in the loop. Cheers

So I guess my question is are these keto gummies safe to use.

@pellwang, as with any supplement that is unregulated, it's important to be skeptical as well as open-minded. Do you research and understand the potential risks and potential benefits. At the current time, there’s no conclusive research that keto gummies do in fact work. But if you want to try keto gummies, make sure you talk to a healthcare provider first.

Here are a few resources from trusted medical sources to help you with your research:
- Do Weight Loss Gummies Actually Work? https://www.healthline.com/health/weight-loss/do-weight-loss-gummies-work
- Dietary supplements for weight loss https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/weight-loss/art-20046409

Here is a related discussion:
- Keto diet pills. Are they safe to take? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/keto-diet-and-keto-diet-pills/

Kept myself very busy as much as I was able, slept when I could in order to reboot, drank a lot of ice water and still do (helps a lot with internal swelling; I figured if it was good for external inflammation why not internal), and when I didn't feel well when I woke up and forced myself to get out of bed in 10 minutes and not lay any longer in bed (the sooner I got moving the better I felt). For myself, I found my PMR symptoms were helped greatly by water and motion.

A great big thank you for your contribution on this platform. I hope and I pray that you will never have to be on this drug again it works but done of the side effects are costly. I've only been on prednisolone since August 2023 but my mood swings have been hard for both myself and my husband. I am weaning now and just about to go on 2 mg for two weeks then 1 mg the same then 1 mg alternate days for two weeks and finish. I can't wait. Hopefully I will be back to being myself.