Posted , 7 users are following.
I have not been on the forum for awhile. i have both PMR and fibromyalgia. Currently I am on 3.5 mg and very stiff and painful. I NEED TO INCREASE PREDNISONE. I have been diagnosed with PMR since JANUARY 20 15. 3.5 is lowest I have ever been. what should I INCREASE TO? Was doing pretty good at 5mg? By the way, this site is now hard to type on. you can see all the caps. Did not do this on purpose. THANKS, LINDA
0 likes, 4 replies
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EileenH linda82701_USA
Posted
It's bug they are supposed to be sorting out! Don't hold your breath though!!!
If you were good at 5mg then go back to 5mg and see how you get on. You MIGHT need to try a higher dose for a few days first to clear out accumulated inflammation. Many doctors suggest adding 5mg to where the flare occurred and staying there for a few days and then drop back to the chosen dose. So you could try 8mg for 2 or 3 days and then 5mg.
Anhaga linda82701_USA
Posted
Over the past year and a bit I've had a couple of fairly minor flares. The first time I tried going up just a couple of mg but all it did was stretch things out and I ended up having to take the extra five after all. At the time I was at 1.5. I went up to 7. I was able to taper to 2 again, but once more, when I tried to go lower I flared. This time I bit the bullet and went right back to 7 for only a couple of days, then six for a couple, and so forth. Took more time for the last couple of steps. I have not been able to get back to 2 and be stable, however, so currently hanging around at 2.5. Lesson learned - don't pussyfoot around. Take the extra five, but only for a couple of days, then drop down by 1 mg every couple of days until you are just above where you flared, or, in your case, 5 mg. where you were last stable. Wait for a while before attempting to taper again. At these low doses there really isn't any hurry. At least, that's what I keep telling myself!
lynda62707 Anhaga
Posted
is it best to go up about 5mg or so (as opposed to only 1or2) when you're having a flair? I'm always so concerned with taking the minimum amount, but maybe I'm doing it wrong!
Anhaga lynda62707
Posted
Just saying that's what I had to do. But bear in mind that I had been on pred for two years before that first flare, and it only happened because my doctor, upon hearing I was a 1.5 told me to use up my tablets, stop and see what happens. As I had a lot of tablets I could have tapered using the dead slow taper all the way to zero if it had worked. And I tried. But of course it didn't work. Had this not happened I would have approached the next step down much more cautiously.
My second flare was caused by the extreme stress of the potential move and renovations.
I think people should be able to avoid real flares when working their careful way down to their lowest best dose if they go slowly enough. You can catch the fact your dose is too low and just go back up to the last dose which was good. If you are going slowly enough that might only be 1 mg or .5 mg. That slight increase in PMR symptoms isn't what I would call a flare, but maybe some do. I certainly experienced it and dealt with it by stopping a taper and going back to the previous dose. Not a flare, just a a need to delay a taper.