Skipped dose of prednisone, but not sure as can't remember

[Sunshinemaggie9]

Help please, I couldn't remember all day whether or not I took my 13mg of prednisone this morning. I felt fine so figured I must have taken it. Now is almost 13 hours after I would have taken it but I'm feeling terrible cramps and stiffness that I get when tapering. I have PMR....should I take a chance and take my dose now? I don't know what to do. I know it's dangerous to skip a dose but how dangerous if I overdose by taking it now?

[SheffieldJane]

I have done that. I took 5 mgs extra when I realised. It was all good.

[CT-5012]

Agree with Jane take a bit extra just in case won’t do any harm even if you did take your usual dose. All been there, try a doses strip from the pharmacy then you can see if you have taken your pred. All the best.

[Hidden]

We’ve all done it at sometime I’m afraid!

Take half your dose (as near as) as your half wY through the day, then back to normal tomorrow!

A little daily pill strip from the Chemist is the best idea as CT-5012 suggests, a lot of us have them! 😉

Hope you feel OK x

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Bit late for me to advise - but 26mg is hardly an overdose since many people are on more than 50mg when they have GCA.

It isn't really dangerous to miss a single dose - what is dangerous is to just stop taking pred regularly without tapering. The most that will happen having missed a single dose is that you will have a short-lived flare and then you will get back to normal tomorrow.

[ninjapete]

That has never happened to me, but I would agree with the others, take a partial dose to get you through. I also like the idea of the doses strip to test whether or not you have taken your meds. Did not even know this was available.

[Janstr]

A week & 1/2 ago I forgot to take a 13.5 mg dose & didn't realise until the next evening at which point I took nothing extra other than increasing my daily pred to 14mg. I too got some of the pain back including a low grade headache behind one eye &ended up going to my GP a week later as the headache was persisting & I was worried about GCA. It wouldn't go with aspirin or paracetamol.

My GP thinks the headache was withdrawal symptoms caused by missing the dose. I still have the headache, but now very low grade; I.e. I barely notice it.

[Omanain]

I am very organised with my pred. Every Saturday I count the correct dose for each day of the following week into a pill organiser, ticking them off the list I have made for my DSAS reduction. With my pred head I could't possibly manage without a memory aid. Otherwise I would holding the packet thinking "did I just take them? Or was that yesterday? Should I take some more? Or hope for the best? All that sort of stuff!! My advice - get a pill organiser. You can get some quite pretty ones these days.