Hello and update

Hi I know how you are feeing about doctors not very helpful I was on preds for ten months starting on dose of 40mg after a few months started tapering slowly been of them six weeks now sorry forgot to say I was taking them for polymalgia have days feeling OK then others feeling awful don't want to go back on preds so guess I will just after ride it out

You will find almost all users have migrated over to HealthUnlocked community. This forum (Patient) used to be excellent but some ill-advised technical "improvements" caused nearly everyone to leave.

From my point of view, I'm in a very similar position. After an initial uneventful taper from 15 to about 1.5 in my first 2 years on pred I spent the next three years or so at or around 2 mg with a brief flirtation last year with zero. Things did not go well afterwards and after many months I have discovered most of my pain is NOT due, as I thought , to osteoarthritis, but rather to a flare of PMR. For several weeks I've been at my highest dose since the beginning and having difficulty dropping lower so it looks like a long slow taper from current 8 mg back, I hope, to well under 5 if not all the way back to 2.

Interesting that a split dose has been helpful to you. If I have problems tapering I may give it a try but in the past I always found pred lasted me through the 24 hours. I use the "Dead Slow Nearly Stop" taper plan, but this is not usually necessary when dealing with a normal flare. As I'll likely be stuck here for a while longer I may have no choice. As they say, "It isn't slow if it works".

Also, if your doctor is content to let you manage your own taper (likely understands none of us want to take more pred than we need) I would avoid seeing a rheumatologist. They may be good, but too often they are keen on using other medications to try to get a patient to taper faster and it all becomes more complicated, and probably harder on the system than a simple sensible pred taper!

I never saw a Rheumatologist. My MD has let me determine how much pred to take for the last five years, now 3 1/2 mgs which is where I have been for half a year. I have found that reducing by 1/2 mg slowly when reaching 10 mgs has worked for me.