Trying to find 1mg tables of Prednisolone
Posted , 5 users are following.
I have been taking preds for over 7 years now for GCA/PMR, and have found that the ideal dose for me is 6mg per day, which was fine when I lived in the Uk as 5mg and 1mg were available to me.
Last year my husband and I retired to Madeira, Portugal, mainly for the climate and relaxing way of life here. The problem I have is that 1mg preds are not available here , only 5 and 10 mg. So can anyone tell me the best way to coninue taking 6mg a day. I have tried cutting a 5mg pill up, but it can only be cut into four which means increasing the dose slightly which I am loathe to do and decreasing the dose at the moment is not an option.
Any suggestions please.
0 likes, 12 replies
EileenH Lindylulu
Posted
You could try and see if 5+1 and a bit taken on alternate days with 5mg is adequate, 5+/5+/5 repeated is closer. It really doesn't have to be accurate and the same every day.
They MUST be able to either get 1mg tablets or a liquid formulation - what do they do for children who wouldn't be put on such a high dose?
Do you have chemists who compound medications? Chemists here in Italy will make up any dose you want - you get a prescription for the high dose version plus prescriptions for the equal total amount but as the dose you want. For example: my husband needed 2mg warfarin, here they only have 5mg, 2.5mg was too much. He got a script for x tablets of 5mg, plus scripts for the number of 2mg tablets it is possible to make conveniently from that amount. The pharmacist grinds the 5mg tablets and weighs them into capsules - result 2mg doses.
Alternatively - do you visit the UK at intervals and have a helpful GP there? You could get some 1mg pred in the UK - making sure the use-by date is long enough. I did that at first when I moved here. It's cheap enough to get privately if a GP will write you prescription.
Lindylulu EileenH
Posted
Yesterday I tried 5mg, awful day so back up today. Our local chemist is very helpfu in the village and one of the chemists speaks very good english, so I will enquire as to whether your suggestion is possible here.
With a population of only 250,000 here, the consultants on the island have seen only a couple of cases of GCA/PMR so really do not understand the problem of decreasing very slowly.
Can you get 1mg tablets in Italy?
EileenH Lindylulu
Posted
Our region is also only about 500,000 - but they are very good at PMR and the local doctors are VERY keen on slow reduction! It is only nominally Italy - it is the northern German-speaking autonomous region and very different from the rest of the country in almost every way!
Yes, I do get 1mg tablets because I am on Lodotra, a delayed release form of pred, which can't be cut and is made in 5,2 and 1mg tablets.
But you know, 1mg and the 1.25mg you get by cutting a 5mg tablet are not so different, 6mg/6.25mg is really hardly worth worrying about - they are both well below the physiological dose, the amount of corticosteroid made by the body and which is essential to life! If you don't take that 0.25mg your body will make its equivalent to top up the dose. It really isn't going make a significant difference - except in your imagination!
Michdonn Lindylulu
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Lindylulu Michdonn
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I have tried the internet but they either want a prescrition or they don't post to Madeira.
EileenH Lindylulu
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Michdonn Lindylulu
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Lindylulu, we live in the states and our daughter gets meds out of Canada for our dogs there. Because of the price of meds in the states many people are buying products in Canada, 🙂
Lindylulu EileenH
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Lindylulu Michdonn
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Michdonn Lindylulu
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Anhaga Lindylulu
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I'm sure I posted this already but the post is not here. Please be careful when ordering from a Canadian source. There are online pharmacies claiming to be Canadian which are actually selling fake products.
Lindylulu Anhaga
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