Prednisone tapering

[PabloK]

my doc agreed to me stopping my ADT - (over 2 years of lupon/zytiga and nd PSA).

I was pretty happy.....but i forgot to ask about if i need to taper off my 5 mg prednisone dose.

the doc is out - so i was hoping that someone here knew.

thanks

[Tall_Allen]

Yes. Every other day, then every 2-3 days, then once a week. Do it slowly for best results. Your adrenals have to start producing cortisol slowly.

[PabloK in reply to Tall_Allen]

thanks TA - i'm on your plan - going to do every other day for two weeks - then every third day for two weeks - and then once a week for two weeks. thanks God there is an app i can use to keep this all straight

[db1966]

If you don’t taper off you may experience some form of pain as I experienced over the Xmas period. My dr didn’t tell me to taper. He said I could just stop. Bad idea. I’m every other day with prednisone right now and the pain has gone. Will be very 2-3 days by the end of this week. The pain was similar to costochontritis in the chest bone and knee pain.

[LearnAll in reply to db1966]

A general rule is that every steroid medication ..be it prednisone or Dexamethasone ..should be tapered off slowly (unless there is urgent need to stop) Sudden removal of steroid from body jolts the Adrenal System and causes problems.

[db1966 in reply to LearnAll]

Shame on my oncologist. He should have recommended this.

[PabloK]

thanks so much - great advise as usual - i have switched my med tracker to every other day -i'm in no rush so i'll take it slow.

[Hidden]

I had my yearly physical today and I discussed this exact topic with my PCP. He wants to be involved when the time comes (July 2021) for me to go on ADT vacation.

He has experience weaning patients off prednisone.

My next MO appt is January 20th and I will begin the discussion of weaning off prednisone.

At the moment I'm on 10mg daily so I'm looking at going to 5mg daily between now and July.

I think it'll be easier going from 5mg to 0mg than 10mg to 0mg

I think it's important to have all of the doctors communicating with one another to prevent

complications that can easily be avoided. It seems this is not always the case after reading some of the posts on this site.

[j-o-h-n in reply to Hidden]

Reminder....... Taper back onto sex (6 years is a long time)....If you forgot what to do, you can always borrow my torn and tattered book, "Sex for Dummies".....

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Wednesday 01/13/2021 10:10 PM EST

[PabloK in reply to j-o-h-n]

so what is this sex you talk about? I think i remember the elders mentioning it around the camp fire.

[Hidden in reply to j-o-h-n]

Are there pictures? I need pictures.

[j-o-h-n in reply to Hidden]

Portrait or Landscape?

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Thursday 01/14/2021 5:29 PM EST

[j-o-h-n]

I guess you were too young to understand what the elders were taking about during the BBQ. They weren't talking about sex.... they were discussing the size of their wieners.....

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Thursday 01/14/2021 5:05 PM EST

[westof]

Hmm... I just started tapering off prednisone and Zytiga on 1/1/2021.

According to my great MSK MO:

1) Zytiga: weekly taper 4321 tabs (or horse pills!), done in the month.

2 Prednisone: stay at 5mg for the first 2 weeks and reduce to 2.5mg for the next 3 (he added 1 week of pred after stopping Z).

Also, had my last Lupron shot in July. Gone and done (hopefully)!

Hope this helps