How do YOU decide whether and how much to change your dosage?
Posted , 23 users are following.
Ultimately each of us makes the final decision about changing or not changing our dosage of prednisone. I want to learn how YOU decide.
For example, do you tolerate stiffness so long as it doesn't cause "too much" pain when getting out of bed? Or do you take enough prednisone that there is NO pain associated with standing up off the toilet?
What do you consider to be symptoms of "too much" prednisone?
Do you base your decision on laboratory measures in any way?
Or do you simply follow your physician's orders?
6 likes, 80 replies
bob73443 philoso4
Posted
For me, it's a combination of 2 things. First, it's my pain levels. Secondly, it's the quarterly blood test results.
The largest problem I have is at night, or I should say early morning. From 2:00 AM onwards, my back and ribs start hurting. I'm currently at 8 mg and will not go lower because I fear I won't be able to sleep. I've tried Tramadol at night, and that helped a little bit, but not enough to continue taking it long term.
I'm certainly not pain free during the day, but I'd say I'm at 80% of normal during the day. Again, it's the night-time that keeps me from lowering even more. I've even split my dosage between AM and PM -- 5 mg in the AM and 3 in the PM but that doesn't help too much for the nighttime discomfort.
When I do extra work (outside yardwork, for example), the pain level during the day increases a lot. I tried lowering to 7 mg during a few weeks ago but when right back up to 8 because of daytime pain.
I forget my blood test results right now, but they're much lower than before I started the prednisone 15 months ago, and are trending lower.
Bottom-line -- for me it's primarily the pain levels that hint that I can either increase or decrease.
Again, great question.
philoso4 bob73443
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judy20492 bob73443
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kathy67492 bob73443
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julian. philoso4
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philoso4 julian.
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suesing philoso4
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When reducing, I seem to get some stiffening and pain, but nothing like it was when I was first diagnosed. After about 3 - 4 weeks this reduces again. The worst thing for me is the headaches and total fatigue that I get when I start to reduce, which again goes on for about 4 weeks before I stabilize again. If it's too bad to tolerate, or I have a heavy day to deal with, I stay at the old dosage. Eventually I feel good on the lower dose and stay there for about 5 - 6 weeks before slowly beginning the next 1/2mg reduction.
As long as my inflammation stays right down, I will continue on this path.
philoso4 suesing
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