My Dilemma
Posted , 9 users are following.
I started taking pred. at 2am. Seems to help with stiffness in morning. However, the pred. seems to wear off about 10-11pm and my sleeping in not good. I'm thinking of going back to taking about 6 or 7 in am. Any thoughts?
0 likes, 9 replies
nomoreflipflops ingo
Posted
Mrs.Mac-Canada ingo
Posted
I can't remember how much pred you are on but I think it was above 10mg.
I was taking my pred (unfortunately back at 10mg reducing to 9mg after a flare) at about 10:00pm and was really having trouble sleeping. On the advice of Mrs. O and others I started taking it at between 10:00pm & 11:00pm and it seems to have helped. I do have prescribed sleeping pills that I will take if I have a few nights of being up during the night but that is rare now.
I hope you find the magic formula because the fatigue from PMR is bad enough without lack of sleep. Oh, don't forget a short siesta is a real energy saver.
Sweet dreams😴😴😴😴
Diana🌸
EileenH ingo
Posted
jean39702 EileenH
Posted
EileenH jean39702
Posted
steve_1 ingo
Posted
I split the dose into 2 lots taken about 12 hours apart.
Sorted.
judy50581 ingo
Posted
Boronia ingo
Posted
However, as I started to reduce, I started to get the “wearing off” effect in the evening, and sometimes would go to bed with pain in various places in varying degrees. Sometimes the pain bordered on being quite severe. When I shared this information with the rheumatologist, she suggested I split the dose.
So I began experimenting. I am on 11mg at the moment. As the pain in the evening was getting increasingly worse despite my excellent mobility during the day, I decided I would not consider any kind of pred reduction until I found some sort of equilibrium in pain management. Initially, I tried a half dose at 2:00 am and half dose at 2:00 pm. Results were somewhat improved but some morning stiffness returned. Then I changed to 8mg at 2:00 am and 3mg at 2:00 pm. I found the effect was better in the morning in particular, and the pain in the evening still abated somewhat. I continued my method of “trial and error” and for the past month have been on this schedule: 8mg at 2:00 am, 2mg at 2:00 pm, and 1 mg at 5:00 pm. For me, this is a very harmonious balance. (At one stage I did try to go back to 7:00 am/single dose but I did not like waiting for the stiffness to subside.) To be honest, I would prefer one dose a day but I do not feel this is an option at the moment for me personally. Also, while taking medicine twice a day is manageable, having to remember to take medicine three times seems to be a bit excessive, particularly if you are a person like me who never even took aspirin before PMR. While I would not recommend it for anyone else, this is what works for me at the moment.
As I work from home in front of a computer, I have prompts to remind me when to take my medicine, as necessary. When I go out for the day, that is another story and I am very likely to be late at taking medicine even with my iPhone prompts, but I accept this risk.
Because of rearranging my schedule, I did not reduce my pred even by 0.5 mg in the last 2.5 months, but I feel better now and confident that I can reduce. I intend to reduce by 1mg next week, probably like this: 7.5mg at 2:00 am, 1.5 mg at 2:00 pm, and 1mg at 5:00 pm. Or, I just might go from 8mg to 7mg at 2:00 am to simplify things. If this does not work, I will try something else, or I will just go for a 0.5mg reduction. The split reduction, I imagine, will be more of a challenge in the process of reduction. But I will continue to experiment with caution.
In the same way I accept my PMR, I accept that my management of it has to be “tailor-made.” At the same time, I derive confidence to experiment from all the good advice I receive from this site (thank you, everyone!) and from the support of my rheumatologist. I hope that some day I can return to one dose and then NO DOSE but in the meantime, I will cater to pacifying my unique aches and pains when and where they occur. Hope sharing my experience helps you a little, and that you can find the best way for you.
Mrs.Mac-Canada Boronia
Posted
Thanks for sharing your method of taking your prednisone. It is a new one to me and another option for people that are having trouble with the pred carrying them comfortably through the day.
Best of luck with your reduction plan and keep us posted on how you're doing.
Diana🌸