Newbie here: Thanks for letting me join. Have been... - PMRGCAuk

PMRGCAuk

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Newbie here

Okiemom profile image
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Thanks for letting me join. Have been with PMR for 4 plus years now. Prednisone has been as high as 45 first year, now at 15 and would greatly like to reduce more. Anxious to read posts on reducing. Diane

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Okiemom profile image
Okiemom
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Hello Diane & Welcome 💐

How are you feeling & are you ready to reduce? The general consensus on here is to not reduce by more than 10% of your current dose. Has your GP or Specialist suggested what dose you should reduce to next?

There is a lot of help & advice available here to help you get as low as you can while keeping symptoms at bay as PMRpro would say it's not a race to zero!

Best Wishes

Mrs N

DorsetLady profile image
DorsetLadyPMRGCAuk volunteer

Hi Okiemom,

Welcome.

45mg is a very high starting dose for PMR, it's usually 15-20mg - do you why were started so high?

As for reducing, the recommended between 15 mg and 10 mg in 2 steps at 2.5mg each, however many people find that too much, so drop 1mg a time and on a monthly basis provided there are no symptoms.

From 10mg some manage 1mg again, but once down to about 7mg (when your adrenal glands need to kick back in) many reduce by only 0.5mg a time and on a slower plan. One that takes a number of weeks to get from old dose to new rather than an overnight drop.

Sure others will be along to give you the link to one that's very popular.

In the meanwhile if you go to home page, scroll down right hand side to link for pmrgcauk.com you can get info on Guidelines for PMR and GCA - that gives you more info. Remember though, it is a guideline only, and some of stated recovery periods are a little optimistic!

PMRpro profile image
PMRproAmbassador

As DL says - that was a very high starting dose for PMR. Are you sure they didn't suspect GCA? Have you been lower than 15mg in the meantime or have you always had problems when you have tried?

This

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

is very specifically about the slow reduction as mentioned by DL. In the side bar on that page are links to more threads about reduction.

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