Reducing down from 10mg
Posted , 7 users are following.
Hi all many thanks for all your comments on Omeprazole. I was rather surprised that nobody is letting on how long its taken them to reduce down from 10mg, i know its a slow job but im not sure i can wait a year, please tell me your story Thanks Liz
1 like, 6 replies
ptolemy liz12234
Posted
liz12234 ptolemy
Posted
barbara75814 liz12234
Posted
I started with 19 mg of pred. some months ago. (Can't remember exact time.) Since that time, I have been reducing it by 1 mg. per month, so that I am now at 6 mg.
and ready for another reduction to 5 mg. in a couple of days.
I know that some consider this too fast, but in my experience, I only experience a few odd symptoms for a few days after the reduction, and then everything smooths out. I do not mind feeling a few odd tics, therefore.
As I say, in a couple of days my dose will be at 5 mg., and I expect I may be finished with the pred by or in January upcoming. If so, I will be very happy, as you can imagine.
All of this could change in the coming months, and I will try to accommodate accordingly. But so far, so good.
Lots of luck to you in dealing with ole PMR--
Barbara
Sheilamac_Fife liz12234
Posted
I have had no pain for some months, but things like the breathlessness, the fatigue, the dense brain and of course the fat!! are very debilitating and depressing, so I will be pressing on to get down to 7mg over the next 5-6 weeks.
I realise that the fatigue is probably the PMR but I've lumped them alltogether. It is the easiest to deal with. I quite like my naps!
I thought that the 10mg for a year was to really get on top of the inflammation and prevent flares but as I wasn't having any and the method allowed enough Prednisolone in the blood evenly over the weeks and months it should be ok to continue reducing.
Thsts my story, I hope it helps. Fingers crossed for the rest of the journey.
Sheila
tina-uk_cwall liz12234
Posted
the Bristol PMR plan which is where I think you read about the 10mgs for 1 year is part of the gold star treatment method that the authors would like all practitioners to follow. They state 10mgs for 1 year because there is some proof that the longer a patient is on that dose the less chance there is of flares. Well, I suppose that would make sense as by that time, timeline wise we will have had the condition for over 14 months and in many cases the auto immune condition remains live for 2 + years so hopefully a patient would always be taking a tad more preds than needed to keep the inflamation caused by the auto immune condition under control. My rheumatologist had me on 10mgs for 6 months, yet when I attempted a reduction from 9 to 8mgs I suffered a flare. At that time I had just joined this forum and there was an ongoing thread about a dead slow and almost stop reduction plan that was much slower than the reduction plan suggested by the Bristol PMR plan. When I look at that plan now although I am an unqualified clinician I do believe their plan to be far to severe a drop and designed on too quick a drop.
I started using the dead slow and almost stop method and I am now at 7.5. But even this method is too severe for me and as the method suggests for those of us who experience problems with reducing, always only reduc by .5 a mg, I do and as I say I am now at 7.5.
so let's imagine that I don't suffer another flare and the rest of my recovery is fairytale ok, I will still be on some dose of preds for a further 1.5 years..
but then there are dr's who like to keep their patients on the 5mg dose and or the 1 mg dose for many months in other to reduce the risk of flares, so as you can see this tricky condition keeps us all on our toes and behaves as predicted, unpredictably!
regards, tina
EileenH liz12234
Posted
Since I see you mean the recommendation of a year at 10mg - that is one version of many reductions. If you want to use the Bristol reduction plan they include this year at 10mg and find doing that reduces the rate of flares to 1 in 5 instead of the 3 in 5 that is far more common using other reductions. As Sheilamac has said, if you use the "Dead slow and nearly stop" approach there is no need to stick at 10mg for more than the month to 6 weeks that is advisable to make sure your symptoms are still under control at the new dose.
Just in case - you'll find it in the replies part of this thread:
https://patient.info/forums/discuss/pmr-gca-website-addresses-and-resources-35316
But believe me - if you reduce too fast and let yourself in for a flare you may feel sticking at 10mg for a year isn't too bad after all!