Dosage question

Has your Rheumy given you a schedule for tapering?   I was given general advice but told to see how went. I was fine until I got to around the 12.5 level and then found I had to go up a bit to stay comfortable and then resume reductions on a suck it and see basis. My GP asked me to keep a diary and he oversaw my reductions but left me to listen to my body and act accordingly. This worked very well for me and I did eventually get to zero on both occasions ( I've had PMR twice )

I do hope you are allowed to organise your own reductions because, as you will find form other replies that will be coming along, it really does no good at all to be pushed along at an arbitrary rate. We are all different. 

Good luck and best wishes.

You might have to wait a long time if the shoulder pain is due to bursitis - I didn't have shoulder problems but did have hip bursitis and it took several months to go away entirely and it still flares up from time to time. But it is reasonable to start to reduce the dose after this time. Don't however reduce too fast - i.e. in big steps. 2.5mg at a time is more than enough just now! If that still seems too much when you try it - ask to go 1mg at a time. Only you can know what works for you.

I would say be careful with pt - make sure they are aware of PMR and the problems associated with it. Too many repetitive actions are poison for PMR - gentle stuff is needed, maybe hydrotherapy. 

Hi - I was tapering and got down to 15mg, ready for the next taper. Then a gentleman went into the back of my car as I was travelling 30 miles an hour through a cotswold village. He had fallen asleep at the wheel! In fact he did me a favour because the resulting slight whiplash meant that I kept at 15mg for another couple of months, and in that time all shoulder and neck pain disappeared. We're all different but I thought I would add my experience to the mix.

I would also be very careful with too much stretching using shoulders - the instinct is that this must be good and relieve symptoms but it can be the opposite if done too much or too long. My useful Consultant niece made sense of this when she suggested I think of driving along the motorway on broad roads with free flowing traffic - then I turn off onto a narrow road where the traffic starts to build up and is no longer free flowing, too much pressure results in our all too familiar aches and pains. Don't know if this helps - but good luck anyway!

I love your niece's metaphor.

Hi Dottie, welcome to our little club, sorry you have to join us on our journey. I am one of the lucky ones, I can get PMR pain free, not everyone can. It is hard to tell whether the pain is from PMR or something else. I would do something different than everyone else, I would bump my Prednisone up to 25 for 3 days and see if that clears out any inflammation. Then 3 days back on 20 and start a DSNS taper at 2 mg. If pain increase, I would stop, I don't reduce my Prednisone if I have any PMR pain.

None of us want to be on Prednisone, but most doctors want us off too quickly and we end up getting a flare. Results we take more than if we had taken it slow and easy. Good luck on the rest of your journey, stay active, positive and try to smile. ??