Posted , 7 users are following.
Hi, thanks to everyone for the great advice and expert knowledge.
After my relapse, I went from 3mg a day to 6mg a day.
Been on this for a week now and it has worked!
All pains eased off.
When can I start to reduce the dose?
Previously on 3mg for 4 months after a slow taper.
Thanks
0 likes, 4 replies
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nick67069 floramac
Posted
It seems that 3mg may not be sufficient to hadle PMR symptoms. You could go immediately back to a dose which is just above 3mg and you felt fine. I assume that was 3.5 or 4mg, depending on the steps in your reduction. The reason you don't need to reduce slow is that you have not stayed at 6mg for long time ( only 1 week).
Daniel1143 floramac
Posted
In the past, I've stayed on a higher dose for as few as two days before tapering again. I suspect you can start immediately, but reduce very slowly. My recent reduction plan has been 1/4 mg per week. My approach is a bit different than others. Translated to you, 6 mg /day week one. Alternate 6 - 5 1/2 week two. 5 1/2 week three and so on. Very controlled and not hard to remember. When you feel as though your body is not ready to continue, you hold firm. I stayed at 3 mg for two weeks and 1 mg for three.
EileenH floramac
Posted
YOu don't really know which dose is going to be enough - if you had been at 3mg successfully for as long as that then it suggests it is an increase in disease activity that caused the flare - unless you have infection or trauma going on. It could be 5mg that is the new dose or it might be anything down to 3.5mg. 5mg is a low dose already - so don't be in too much of a hurry. I had a flare at 5mg last year and had to go back to 15mg to get it under control. I'm still at 7mg.
snapperblue floramac
Posted
My guess is that the time until you should start reducing is related to how long it took you to increase the dose when symptoms recurred.
After getting down to 6 mg (at last! finally! dancing in the streets!) and seeming to be stabilized there, the symptoms began to appear again. I was stubborn and tried to tough it out for 4 weeks... a really, really bad idea.
As a result, I had to go to 10 mg to get things under control and I stayed there a month. When I got to 6 mg again, again it was OK at first but then symptoms returned. This time I reponded more quickly and 7.5 controls things.
Infuriating! Frustrating! But fighting PMR never works. As Eileen says, it will be there as long as the underlying disorder is active. I'd started chasing the false goal of getting off prednisone- or at least getting under 5 mg.
PMR bats last! We can't fool it or try to kick it around.