Question

I went from 5mg to 4mg per my doctor, she gave me 1mg pills so I can slowly go down.  This was months ago, I don't remember for sure but think the first few 2-3 days were odd, mostly feeling very hungry which I thought wierd since that usually happens when first starting pred, I didn't think it would happen when reducing.  After then I felt fine.  I am still on 4mg not sure when I will go to 3mg.

Hi!  I have RA and reduced my prednisone from 15 down to nothing, over the course of 9 months.  But I stopped at 7 for a long time, and went down 1mg a week this year ending in April.  I found 7-6-5-4 the very hardest, because I actually got joint pain which I've found out was prednisone withdrawal not arthritis.  I didn't have mood swings but I did get very exhausted and low on actual life energy for about two months.  I didn't come right until 4 or 5 weeks after stopping completely.  But now, I feel amazing and am so glad I did it.  I did a lot of reading and there's some really good posts on this site about a quite complicated and much slower method of reducing, which I read too late.  Turns out I went fairly fast down, but I was doing what my doctor told me, and it worked out ok.  I guess what I'm saying is possibly the worst is behind you, or you are in the worst now and it will get better.  It is really really hard though, and every person reacts individually.  You can do it!  All the best.

 

If you have been on pred for long (more than about 6 weeks or less at higher doses) at this level of pred your body is having to readjust and start to produce its own corticosteroid called cortisol. Some people take longer than others but in the meatime you are likely to feel fatigued and there are other symptom indicating adrenal insufficiency. It is a very complex set-up and while it is sorting itself out some people find themselves very up and down. Pred itself at higher doses can cause mood swings but the changing doses can upset you too

This is probably the slow reduction approach sonya mentioned:

https://patient.info/forums/discuss/reducing-pred-dead-slow-and-nearly-stop-method-531439

Hi Wendy, I hope you begin feeling better. I recently decreased from 6mg to 4mg and am experiencing ankle swelling throughout the day and morning stiffness. I left a message with my doc to ask if this is a normal response. Have you or anyone else experienced a similar reaction when decreasing medrol? Many thanks. 

I keep a 10-day "short burst" of prednisone in the cupboard (which gets renewed every 9 months) in the event I have a bad flare-up. I may use them once every year and a half. One time I was tapering my dose as I always have and my symptoms came back even worse than before I start the burst. So my doctor had me start the short burst all over again, but in my tapering I actually had to cut each pill in quarters and very, very slowly reduce the dose. It worked. This stuff can be unpredictable.

 

I'm also tapering Prednisone, I have been reduce by .25mgs every couple of weeks.   First week I reduce the prednisone from 5 to 4.75 on day one then back up to 5 the next day and continue for a week.   Second week I reduce to 4.75 every day.   I managed to get down to 4.5mgs but the pain sudden;y exploded, so I've jumped back up to 5mgs, but it doesn't seem to be helping, not sure if it's the tapering or the Cosentyx I've started on again.   Can't use my hands at all at the moment, even brushing my teeth is painful.