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How should you feel on the slow reduction strategy?

Posted , 4 users are following.

Dinah54
Dinah54

I am on my third lowered dose day - ie have got to the stage of five days old dose (5mg) one day 4mg and am already feeling the shoulder pain come back which I haven't had for a few months. 

Should you expect to feel a return of symptoms so early on in the slow reduction scheme? It's not debilitating by any means but I wonder if it's a bad sign and means I should go back to 5 mg which was a sticking point previously?

Meanwhile I have been looking in to hyperbaric oxygen chambers - ha! I can just imagine how my rheumatologist would react to that one!!....

0 likes, 5 replies

5 Replies

  • jennissw
    jennissw Dinah54

    Posted

    Perhaps at this stage of the game, 1/2 mg may be better rather than 1mg. Id go back to 5mg and get comfortable then start again and try 1/2mg.
    • Dinah54
      Dinah54 jennissw

      Posted

      Good idea - don't know why I didn't think of that! Thank you.
    • Dinah54
      Dinah54 jennissw

      Posted

      Oh and also your suggestion of alkaline foods/apple before meals seems to have done the trick with coming off Omeprazole. No ill effects so far, crossed fingers....
    • jennissw
      jennissw Dinah54

      Posted

      That is good to hear Dinah. I have to say all the people who have tried it, report the same thing. I am always well stocked with apples and after years of reflux, I only get problems if I forget my apple 20 mins before food
  • EileenH
    EileenH Dinah54

    Posted

    I can only repeat: you are not reducing to zero, you are reducing to the lowest dose that will manage your symptoms AT THE MOMENT. If you are repeatedly getting stuck at 5mg - that is your "maintenance dose" for now. 5mg is a sticking point for many, it is also a low dose, lower than the amount your body produces normally when not on pred. Not only do you have the inflammation to think about but there is also your body needing to get back to making its own cortisol.

    Don't push it, accept this is where you are for now. Keep to 5mg for a few months and then try again - apart from anyhting else, it saves messing about with a pill cutter and a diary!!

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