Decreasing prednisilone

[Fifelassieo]

Just diagnosed with pmr last month, doctor started me off on 20mg prednisilone for a month. My doctor has cut me down to 17.05 this month but l am feeling the pain coming back along with some fatigue. Is the prednisilone going to be cut every month.

[SheffieldJane]

My start dose was 20 mgs I stayed on it because I wasn’t even advised about tapering. Fortunately I found this forum and learned the importance of a slow taper and stopping if the symptoms return. I used one of the tapering methods outlined on here or shown on the PMRGCAUK website, peruse it anyway. In your shoes I would go up by 1 mg to see if that banked down the inflammation. I would make a case for doing my own slow taper - dead slow nearly stop ie dsns. Guided by the Charity. It works far better. Racing off Prednisalone just doesn’t work. These diseases last a few years. At 10 mgs I would never reduce by more than 1 mg, half a tablet can be even better. Brace yourself, in common with many GPs he doesn’t really get it but they still instruct with great authority I am afraid.

I do new dose one day a week, old dose 6 days, then 5 days until I am on the new dose every day of the week. If that makes sense, it works.

[Fifelassieo in reply to SheffieldJane]

Thanks.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Possibly - but it shouldn't be reduced if you still have symptoms. The pred doesn't really do a lot for the fatigue - and I do wonder if you thought you could return to normal levels of activities. You can't, you have to adjust your lifestyle or you will suffer fatigue and your muscles are intolerant of acute exercise and if you do too much they will turn round and bite back.

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk......

[Fifelassieo in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Ideally, but only if you have no return of symptoms!

Unfortunately life has a habit of getting in the way of a smooth reduction, but good advice from Jane on reducing and PMRpro on learning to pace yourself.

Bit more, when you feel up to reading -

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

[Fifelassieo in reply to DorsetLady]

Thanks

[piglette]

I started at 20mg too and my rheumie gave me the impression I would be running marathons within the week and would be back to normal. He then got me to reduce to 15mg after three weeks, it was a total disaster. I was never told by him that PMR is life changing and you need to take things easier than you did before. The aim is to slowly reduce until you reach a balance, this does not mean you cannot reduce in the future you just need to stop for the time being. The amount of the reduction does seem to vary a lot from person to person. I should go back to your doctor and say you are getting pain again.

[Fifelassieo]

Thanks, all these replies have been helpful