Prednisone tapering schedule
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hello ~first post, am 69 yr old retired RN who until June 20, 2020 had never heard of PMR.Was suffering from severe pain in bilateral shoulders , hip girdle and cervical spine..Labs were off the charts. GP settled on a diagnosis of PMR.Started on 20 mg of prednisone..relief within 2 days.Have been reducing at a level of 10% per month..sometimes a bit faster, developed SID steroid onduced Diabetes...am now at 4.5 mg..suddenly having signs of a flare.
Pain has returned to all areas, also have Rheumatoid Arthritis and Dr had warned that as I reduced the prednisone my RA would come back with a vengeance..started 200mg of Celebrex to aid in reducing inflammation..took it 5 days and have now stopped due to severe GI pain...
Have lost patience with Tx and disease..any one else at this level having similar feelings.love to hear .thanks..Snowflake
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peggy_56092 Snowfake
Edited
Your prednisone reduction is way too fast. Average length of PMR is 6 years. Most people on this site have moved to PMRGCA HealthUnlocked where you can get more comments, advice. Your adrenal glands stop creating cortisol when on long term pred. You may be not only having PMR pain but also from adrenal function not working. Adrenal glands may start working very slowly at 7 mg. I am in my 5th year at 3 1/2 mgs. but I stayed at 6/7 mgs previously for those other years. You are indeed having a flare. Reducing below 10 mgs ideally would be at 1/2 mg increments There are reduction plans listed on this and the HealthUnlocked sites.
Anhaga Snowfake
Posted
Celebrex is the only member left in a class of drugs which have been removed from the market - the best of a bad lot I assume. This was prescribed to me when I was still undiagnosed for PMR (doctor thought it my OA getting worse).
Pred side effects, like weight gain or high blood sugar, can be very much mitigated by a low carb (especially "white" carbs) diet.
I agree with Peggy that you have reduced far too fast.
I reduced from 15 mg to 3 mg in one year, and that was considered fast. I then took a year to reduce to 1.5 mg! In spite of getting that low then I have spent most of the past four years at or around 2 mg. Have recently been experiencing my first major flare and am taking 10 mg again for a few days, first time since 2015, and should be able to deal with the flare in short order and taper back down to, perhaps, 3 for a while and eventually I hope back to 2 or less. I am disappointed because I was actually at zero for a few weeks less than a year ago! PMR is an annoying disease, but we learn to manage it, and,, perforce, we learn patience. 😄
You should join the HealthUnlocked forum. It is much more active than this one now is.
peggy_56092 Snowfake
Posted
This slow reduction site from EileenH might be of help for you.