Posted , 14 users are following.
Hello All!
I'm down to .5mg prednisolone every other day, I have been on this dose since September. But where do I go from here?? I'm trying .5mg every 2 days but I'm suffering "cold turkey"!!
HELP PLEASE.
Many Thanks
ANDREA XX
0 likes, 10 replies
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judith87642 andrea93419
Edited
well, I'm no doctor, but Ive never heard of reducing that way****If your body tolerated 5mg every other day, Id reduce to 4mg on every other day once or twice every two weeks or so.. (gradually slip in 4mg slowly) then try 4 mg every other day for a couple weeks and introduce an occasional 3mg..etc...It might take 2-3 months to go from 5mg to 3mg or it might take 5-6 weeks to go from 5mg to 4mg...Have you heard of the DSNS method.. Dead Slow Nearly Stop..popular in Europe..
EileenH judith87642
Edited
Think you missed the tiny little dot - she is on 0.5mg, not 5mg.
nick67069 andrea93419
Edited
So close ... Have you tried to split the pill to 1/4mg? Maybe you need that extra step and your adrenals need just a bit more time to adjust.
Silver49 nick67069
Edited
I had the same thought but wondered about making the 1/4 every 2nd or 3rd day and 1/2 on the other days. Perhaps tweak it a bit as necessary. It is so low but may just be what your body needs at present.
EileenH andrea93419
Posted
I think that is just suggesting you aren't quite ready to go to that. It is such a low dose I wouldn't worry and just wait a month or two and try again.
Am I right to assume too you are trying to go to taking the dose every two days all the time? What about 2 days no pred followed by back to alternate days 0.5 and zero for a week or more before trying the 2 days without pred again?
EileenH
Posted
PS - I don't suppose for a moment you have a local pharmacy that makes up doses? Ours here in Italy will make up anything at any dose in capsules.
There is also a liquid version of pred - used for children. It is more expensive but at those doses it would be ideal to manage 1/4mg per day if the tablets won't cut - not that it matter how accurately the half mg breaks, it is less than 1/2mg and over 2 days will balance out.
andrea93419 EileenH
Posted
I think I may have to try something like this Eileen until my adrenals catch up. thank you for the advice.
xx
Anhaga andrea93419
Posted
I was on .5 mg for a while, having got there by using the dead slow nearly stop tapering method, only I did each step twice. So it took me three months to get there from 1 mg. I had been fine with this method from 2 mg, half a mg at a time; it took a year to get to 1 mg so you can't taper much slower than that. Unfortunately when I was at about the last cycle, the 6 day cycle, to .5 mg, and had been feeling pretty good to that point, the telltale signs of PMR started to creep back. So now I'm back at 1 mg. Today I tried .5 again, but I may take even longer this time to try to get all the way. I assume that I'll have the same difficulty when I attempt to get to zero, when my "new" dose will be zero. I guess this is what you are finding too. As PMRpro says, this is such a low dose even if we need to be on it for a long time it should do no harm, but will give us a better quality of life. Eventually I imagine we'll get there. Just not yet. It is discouraging when you see the goal, it's so close, and yet just out of reach!
andrea93419 Anhaga
Posted
Hi Anhaga,
This is the stage I'm at now, so near and yet so far.
xx
andrea93419
Posted
Hi All,
Well everything has settled down and I'm feeling much better, so I'm going to stay on this dose for a month before trying to go 3 days without taking prednisolone.
I had all my bloods checked this week and to my delight my CRP is below 5!! Doctor says its normal, first time in 5 years.
Andrea. xx