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DSNS Success

Posted , 8 users are following.

mark9992
mark9992

I'm down to 6mg per day, having started at 10mg.  I owe it, or at least the smoothness of it to DSNS.  This was my second attempt at going from 7 to 6mg.  The first time I failed about half way through, and although that was disappointing, I went back up to 7 and felt better quickly.  I waited 5 days and then started over.  This time it worked.  I'll be starting down to 5mg again soon, but I have discovered a small consolation prize even upon failing;  Its that even if you don't make it through the cycle and have to go back, guess what?  You at least reduced the amount of pred in your system for that period.  So as I move to 5mg I know that even failure will have that much success.  For those of you on this bumpy road like me, that might be worth keeping in mind!  Good Luck!  Mark

4 likes, 6 replies

6 Replies

  • mark9992
    mark9992

    Posted

    Hey Eileen,  you comment on your DSNS sticky post that below 5mg it pays to go extra slow.  Would you suggest that I try to go from 6 to 5.5 and switch to half a mg reductions going forward?
    • EileenH
      EileenH mark9992

      Posted

      A lot of people use 1/2mg steps even from 10mg - and since any reduction step in a taper should not be more than 10% of the current dose, from 5mg it should be 1/2mg since you can't get any lower. Using the DSNS approach does make it possible to go in 1mg steps (I can't cut my tablets for example as they are coated) but then some people slow the reduction further by doing each step twice for example.

      Below 5mg you are waiting for your adrenal glands to take up production of cortisol again - the slower they go, the more likely they will avoid the fatigue that can be part of that.

  • Anhaga
    Anhaga mark9992

    Posted

    I too have used DSNS.  I did start dropping by .5 mg around 5 mg.  To put things in perspective: I was at 8 mg November 2015, dropping to 4 mg the following May, and have only recently, February-March 2017, successfully dropped to 2 mg.  So the pace may slow down considerably, depending of course on how active PMR is at any given time.  Lately I've felt extraordinarily well, but considering it took six months to drop by a single mg I've little doubt that PMR is still with me.

  • kathy67492
    kathy67492 mark9992

    Posted

    Brilliant comment about reducing the total amount of prednisone at least by a little using the DSNS method! Good luck😊

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