Tapering after six months around 7.5 mg pred?
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On a split dose, I tapered to 7 mg last July, 9 months after PMR diagnosis. Attempts to taper further failed and, since mid November, I have settled on 7.5 mg. In the past month, I have focused on phasing out the split dose and, today, I begin a morning dose only.
My lone side effect from pred is bleeding under the skin. I wonder whether spending a few months on a higher than necessary pred dose really matters. After all, if the PMR is diminishing, future tapering should be easier. Am I right?
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EileenH Joydeck
Posted
The pred is doing nothing to the actual disease process, all it does is mop up the inflammation created each morning by the underlying autoimmune disorder. The idea is that you find the lowest dose that works - to reduce the side effects. It depends how you look at it I suppose - being on slightly too high a dose is fairly immaterial to most people, being on much too high a dose does other things that you can't see. But you can only tell the activity of the cause of the PMR is diminishing by testing the theory. And it doesn't always, sometimes it seems to cycle forming a sine wave of activity, rising and falling again over time though generally apparently weakening. But there is always the potential for a flare in disease activity - which will cause a flare even without a reduction in dose.