1. < Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR)
Profile picture for sslions

Tapering prednisone

Posted by sslions @sslions, Apr 30 1:32pm

Newly diagnosed, brought on by pneumonia. First flare was swelling and pain in shoulders, arms and hands to the point I had to go to ER. Put on 50mg of prednisone there and told to follow up with primary (who is out of the country), so I ended up with PA. He is tapering, but I think too much. 50 to 40 for a week was doable, but this week is 40 to 20 and anytime I do even a short bit of activity the pain and swelling comes back, and now I have swelling in legs and feet. Thoughts??

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) Support Group.

Profile picture for bonandrods
bonandrods | @bonandrods | May 2 12:05pm
In reply to @pmrnew "@sslions it seems to be totally different for so many people. Prednisone is horrible, but admittedly..." + (show)
Profile picture for pmrnew @pmrnew

@sslions it seems to be totally different for so many people. Prednisone is horrible, but admittedly the pain was gone in literally an hour with 1st dose. Life back, back skiing, gym and able to dress myself. I had/have basic PMR started at 30MG, then down 5MG each week which seemed very fast but worked. NO pain. At 5MG now, thinking 2.5 and see what happens. Reading about everyone's experience is really helping. Maybe understanding that reactions may be different for different people and not get discouraged. For me anyway.
Does anyone have any notion, or article that indicates at which Prednisone dose the adrenal glands start waking up? Seems that when they start waking the tapering should be slower??

Jump to this post

@pmrnew I recommend going to YouTube, find Dr Megan, the Prednisone Pharmacist. She has hundreds of videos on prednisone, tapering, PMR and other autoimmune disease info. She has said that once you get to around 5mg prednisone, it gets harder because that’s the amount most of our bodies produce normally. If your astral are slow to kick back in, you may need to stay there longer.

REPLY
Profile picture for ttorre44
ttorre44 | @ttorre44 | May 3 8:42am

That sounds like a severe taper. I started at 20mg and went down 2mg every three weeks until I reached 12. At that point I started to feel the symptoms so the Dr. has me nowgoing down 1mg every 3 weeks and so far so good. I am now at 8mg. Everyone reacts differently but my experience is slow and easy is working. Good Luck to you and hopefully you can get on a schedule that works for you.

REPLY
Profile picture for bandorino
bandorino | @bandorino | May 3 2:42pm
In reply to @pmrnew "@sslions it seems to be totally different for so many people. Prednisone is horrible, but admittedly..." + (show)
Profile picture for pmrnew @pmrnew

@sslions it seems to be totally different for so many people. Prednisone is horrible, but admittedly the pain was gone in literally an hour with 1st dose. Life back, back skiing, gym and able to dress myself. I had/have basic PMR started at 30MG, then down 5MG each week which seemed very fast but worked. NO pain. At 5MG now, thinking 2.5 and see what happens. Reading about everyone's experience is really helping. Maybe understanding that reactions may be different for different people and not get discouraged. For me anyway.
Does anyone have any notion, or article that indicates at which Prednisone dose the adrenal glands start waking up? Seems that when they start waking the tapering should be slower??

Jump to this post

@pmrnew I'm impressed that you are able to get back to the gym and skiing! I'm newly diagnosed with PMR after suffering with the pain and stiffness for most of January and February and part of March. I'm on a 2nd round of a 4 week prednisone taper (one week 20mg, next week 15mg etc,) While on prednisone, my legs and forearms feel like I've already had a full workout with weights! A bit like lactic acid build-up after a long bike ride or hike uphill. I can power thru it when walking upstairs but the last few steps are tough. So much fatigue. My doctor has me concurrently taking hydroxychloroquine (sp?) in hopes that it will kick in to replace the prednisone. I had big plans to get back on my bicycle for long country rides and back to the gym for weight training, but I get fatigues so easily.

REPLY
1 reply
Profile picture for pmrnew
pmrnew | @pmrnew | May 4 6:27am
In reply to @bandorino "@pmrnew I'm impressed that you are able to get back to the gym and skiing! I'm..." + (show)
Profile picture for bandorino @bandorino

@pmrnew I'm impressed that you are able to get back to the gym and skiing! I'm newly diagnosed with PMR after suffering with the pain and stiffness for most of January and February and part of March. I'm on a 2nd round of a 4 week prednisone taper (one week 20mg, next week 15mg etc,) While on prednisone, my legs and forearms feel like I've already had a full workout with weights! A bit like lactic acid build-up after a long bike ride or hike uphill. I can power thru it when walking upstairs but the last few steps are tough. So much fatigue. My doctor has me concurrently taking hydroxychloroquine (sp?) in hopes that it will kick in to replace the prednisone. I had big plans to get back on my bicycle for long country rides and back to the gym for weight training, but I get fatigues so easily.

Jump to this post

@bandorino Been reading here and reading and have absolutely NO clue how this works and how this can be so different with others. That said, my pain started Dec 2025, by Jan 4 we figured what it was. Since the side effects of Prednisone are so horrific, I fasted instead. Drastic change in lifestyle, mostly vegan no SOS (salt, oil, sugar) no alcohol and fasted a week. Then fasted 31 days. Mind you, I was able with support system to do this. March 20 I capitulated to Pred as I could no longer walk to bedroom from pain. Maybe, maybe from lower BP, cholesterol, etc the Pred has less affected me. Yes, I went back to skiing 2 days after 1st pred dose. My doc said her sister got PMR. She right away prescribed 30MG of Pred, and tapering 5MG each week. ALL pain was gone in 1-2 hours after 1st dose, I felt like super woman.
This is a great article on tapering.
https://canadiancentreforaddictions.org/prednisone-withdrawal

REPLY
1 reply
Profile picture for bandorino
bandorino | @bandorino | May 4 9:00am
In reply to @pmrnew "@bandorino Been reading here and reading and have absolutely NO clue how this works and how..." + (show)
Profile picture for pmrnew @pmrnew

@bandorino Been reading here and reading and have absolutely NO clue how this works and how this can be so different with others. That said, my pain started Dec 2025, by Jan 4 we figured what it was. Since the side effects of Prednisone are so horrific, I fasted instead. Drastic change in lifestyle, mostly vegan no SOS (salt, oil, sugar) no alcohol and fasted a week. Then fasted 31 days. Mind you, I was able with support system to do this. March 20 I capitulated to Pred as I could no longer walk to bedroom from pain. Maybe, maybe from lower BP, cholesterol, etc the Pred has less affected me. Yes, I went back to skiing 2 days after 1st pred dose. My doc said her sister got PMR. She right away prescribed 30MG of Pred, and tapering 5MG each week. ALL pain was gone in 1-2 hours after 1st dose, I felt like super woman.
This is a great article on tapering.
https://canadiancentreforaddictions.org/prednisone-withdrawal

Jump to this post

@pmrnew Thank you for replying! I, too, eat plant-based no oil, sugar, salt. But I must confess that over the holidays, let some of the oil and sugar through. Had great success with going all plant-based 8 yrs ago after being in the hospital for a heart attack and congestive heart failure. Was able to bring ejection fraction back up to normal! Been active and feeling great until the PMR diagnoses. I'm thinking tightening up my diet will help.

REPLY
Please sign in or register to post a reply.