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Weaning off of prednisone & pain management
Last Tuesday, I went down from 7.5 mg of Prednisone down to 5 mgs. For the past 4 days my pain level has been a 12 out of 10. I could barely walk. Although I hate to take Advil, Motrin, etc., I took 2 Advil Gels and within 1 hour I felt better (not perfect, but a lot better). Hours later the pain started to come back but was maybe a 6 out of 10. The next morning I was crippled by the pain all over again. I forced myself to get moving, but could barely get around. Drank a lot of ice water, and before I went to bed, I raised the head part of my bed up and fell asleep. Woke up this morning with very little pain. Has anyone experienced any type of correlation between raising your head up vs laying flat, and the amount of pain you will experience? Had that slight change made that much of a difference in your pain level? I have found that drinking almost all my drinks with a lot of ice, definitely helps with internal inflammation. What are your experiences or thoughts regarding this matter? Thanks!
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You’re doing great. Once I got down to 10mgs the process slowed down considerably. Lots of lowering and raising and smaller changes like 1mg down. Sometimes took several weeks or more to get there but eventually it worked and then I’d cruise there for a while till I was ready to try again. Give yourself a pass on this and just keep working on it
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4 ReactionsThank you gman8691
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1 ReactionDid you go straight from 10mg dose down to 7.5mg? If so, that was much too big a reduction in one go. What is your reduction schedule? Sometimes the flares will happen anyway, even with great care.
One thing a lot of us seem to forget is that prednisone does not cure PMR. If we get to a certain dosage level and flare, it likely means we have reduced below our lowest effective dose and the PMR is still active.
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2 ReactionsNo need to feel disappointed in yourself; sounds like you’re doing great. It’s a very hard thing to listen to your body and to be open to doing what works best for you, even if it may not have been what you really wanted to be doing.
My dad also started having more challenges when he got around the 7.5 mg mark. It’s right about there where he had more frequent instances of having to go up, then down, up again, then down. Sometimes he’d keep same dose for a month or more. It was also around the 7.5 mark that he started tapering by .5 mg each time, so you could consider slowing down the taper and talk with your rheumatologist about it when they get back to you, hopefully soon!
Thank you Megz , I’m feeling much better and my Rheumatologist agrees about slowing the taper down to smaller drops. 9,8,7 etc
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1 ReactionThanks Emo!! good to know!! Dropping much slower after talking with my Rheumatologist.
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1 ReactionAwesome! Hope the flare calms downer sooner rather than later, fingers crossed.
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1 ReactionI have dropped my dose of prednisone by 1 mg per month, a week ago I went from 4 to 3 mg, getting all excited to wean off. 3 days later I am struck down by the familiar symptoms of PMR. After 2 days of hell, I increased daily dose to 4mg again, but it hasn't helped. Should l up the dose more? I hate to backtrack.
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2 ReactionsYou are in the zone where your adrenals are trying to kick in and it may be worth having your cortisol levels tested to inform your decision to push on to zero or stay where you are.
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2 ReactionsI went from 7.5 to 5 mgs of Prednisone and for 3 days I was in agony and thought it was my PMR returning. I took Advil Gels (which I was told after the fact that I can't take that), and felt better within an hour. Long story short it was not the PMR it was the Prednisone. You can try Tylenol and contact your doctor to see what they recommend.