taper vs level of pain
Posted , 10 users are following.
I have not had success tapering prednisone. Been trying for 5 months. I have seen lots of comments here regarding how much pain some of you are in.
So is the idea to withstand as much pain as possible in order to get the prednisone as low as possible?
Isn't the pain caused by inflammation?
Isn't getting the inflammation out the whole idea?
This is so very difficult.
1 like, 9 replies
hope4cure barbara40602
Posted
That's very true. Predict does take all,the swelling out of my body and I,do feel a lot better, generally done with tapering method. It hard on the liver and I can only do it 3 times a year.
amkoffee barbara40602
Posted
I'm having problems too and my rheumatologist is making it very difficult by pressuring me. I can't seem to get to 10 milligrams. Everytime I get to 10 milligrams the pain is more the I can bear. So you're not alone. I'm assuming you've tried the slow method. The method that's described here on this site. I can't give you the link because I don't know how to do that on here but I'm sure that Eileen or someone else who does will be on here soon to do that for you.
Good luck to you.
Anhaga barbara40602
Posted
The slow method mentioned by amkoffee:
https://patient.info/forums/discuss/reducing-pred-dead-slow-and-nearly-stop-method-531439
I've used this successfully since I was at 10 mg, usually dropping .5 mg at a time. Now at 2 mg. Last few tapers have taken a very long time, but as Eileen says, it isn't slow if it works.
Anhaga barbara40602
Posted
You should be taking enough pred to eliminate at least 70% of pain. Increased pain for a few days at beginning of taper can be steroid withdrawal, but that sould ease after a few days. If it doesn't, or increases, or if you find pain developing after a little while on the lower dose, it's more likely to be increase in PMR pain, and you'd need to go back to the dose which last worked well.
audrey80537 barbara40602
Posted
Anhaga audrey80537
Posted
Daniel1143 barbara40602
Posted
Barbara, many people will surely a pine here. Generally speaking, your objective is to erase most of the pain. It is not to get yourself down as fast as possible. It's unclear how much practice on your presently on But if you were in pain you were clearly too low. Many of us have tried to push it only to realize that the PMR has a life of its own and it tells us when we can reduce and not the other way around
EileenH barbara40602
Posted
No - you need the amount of pred you need to manage the pain - and going to low just is pointless. The pain and stiffness are the result of inflammation, the pred combats the inflammation.
However - not all pain is due to the PMR. Some people have myofascial pain syndrome, or piriformis syndrome. Many have unrealistic doctors who try to make them reduce too far or too fast.
And some people are never totally pain free - especially if they try to do too much. Pacing and lifestyle changes are also needed in PMR - you can't rely entirely on the pred, it does a lot but not everything.
You have the link for the Dead Slow approach - and that helps most people a lot.
ptolemy barbara40602
Posted