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Have been on 7.5 gm of preds for 2 months (reduced from 50 mg since Aug.2014) exhausted daily.

Posted , 14 users are following.

mary82976
mary82976

I am anxious to get off this medication as my life has come to a standstill.  I was prescribed preds.(50 mg) as a result of GCA in Aug '14.  Now down to 7.5 and constantly tired.  Should I reduce the dose every couple of months regardless of the fatigue.  Please advice.

0 likes, 22 replies

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  • reggie92967
    reggie92967 mary82976

    Posted

    Mary, I so agree, my pain, stiffness is much better on prednisone but the side effects are so bad. I too suffer from severe fatigue. My Rhuem. & PCP are trying to reduce the steroid slowly from 25mg. to 10mg., but just the drop from 15mg. to 14mg. & many symptoms of the PMR are returning, yuck. I want the weight gain, bloating, moonface, high blood pressure, easily agitated, moodiness etc. to be gone. I guess we have to weigh out what is better, what is worse ?
  • Mrs_CJ
    Mrs_CJ mary82976

    Posted

    Hi Mary,

    i have had PMR for over 3 1/2 years and have slowly reduced my Pred from 20 to 3 3/4. I have hardly had a day without fatigue. It was horrible the beginning years - spending days in bed - and as my Pred got lower my fatigue has slightly improved - I am forcing myself to be active (walking and other reasonable exercise) as it definitely helps but I pretty much always have fatigue. 

    There is good advice here about being at a level where your adrenals are waking up and needing to be extra cautious about your Pred reductions. For me since I always have fatigue I've learned to listen to my body's aches and stiffness and use that as my main guideline for reducing my Pred - but I was careful to go extra slow during my 7-5 mg reduction times. 

    Sorry to to hear that you too are experiencing this awful fatigue.  From my reading of this forum over the past couple of years, fatigue is very common for us PMR folks. sad

  • Lee-Colorado
    Lee-Colorado mary82976

    Posted

    After being diagnosed with GCA in Nov of 2013, I have been at 0mg for about 3 weeks. Eileen is correct (as usual) about the 7.5mg level being the time the adrenal gland has to start functioning. I tapered .25mg every week. The normal side affects

    of a taper last about four days and then should go away. When ever I felt the GCA temple aches come back I stopped or went back up to the previously 1mg level. As am example if I were at 6.25 I went back to 7. At every 1mg reduction I had a CRP test. I was stuck at 3 for several months.

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