To increase pred or not?
Posted , 15 users are following.
I have been on 4mg since August 1 and when I tried to go to 3.5 in September, symptoms came back, so I went back to 4mg. In a last 2 weeks I am having relapse of symptoms, although I have not changed my dose recently or have done anything to cause it. My guess is that it might be related to colder weather. On a top of that, last few days I picked up a cold from my daughter. I am still working on a cold, but wonder what to do with pred. Last night, just for experiment, I took 5mg instead of 4. This morning most of the symptoms are gone. I am reluctant to go back to 5mg, so I was thinking to do something different. Now a question(s).
Should I go back to 5mg or try to do this "cleansing" once a week and stick with 4mg most of the time?
Assuming that the experiment works ( once a week 5mg, and 6 days of 4mg), is there any issue with that longer term?
0 likes, 51 replies
Mrs_CJ nick67069
Posted
i reduce by 1/4 mg at a time and I’m just starting to go down to 2 1/2. Every time, somewhere in Eileen’s DSNS reduction plan, I start to feel poorly. My solution is to go up 1/2 mg for 3-5 days and then to resume the reduction plan where I left off.
Its like my body suddenly rebels against the reduction, so I up the dose for a short period, and then my symptoms calm down and I can carry on.
nick67069 Mrs_CJ
Posted
interesting idea. It seems like body needs to be "shaken" to wake up adrenals. I would stay on whatever DSNS step I am on or backup one step and then repeat it until it feels comfortable. Then I would continue further. Maybe body just needs more time to adjust.
At the moment I am at +1 because of cold, and just last night I drop to +0.5 to see how it feels. I always had an issue with colder weather, it seems to increase the stiffness, so I am trying to be careful.
Anhaga nick67069
Posted
I agree, Nick. i think when we start out the definition of "slow" means one thing to us, like a quiet amble along a country lane, but as time goes by and we get more experience with the medication, and notice how our bodies respond even to slight changes, even to forgetting to take the medicine one morning, then "slow" takes on a whole new meaning. We then begin to proceed at a glacial pace, hoping the body (i.e. PMR) doesn't notice a new reduction.