Now down to 2mg of prednisone--how fast should I go from here?

[Moralis]

I was diagnosed with PMR 22 months ago, started on 20mg of prednisone, which worked like magic. Side effects including weight gain, bone loss,sleeeplessness, etc. I've been reducing slowly and steadily ( Dorset Lady plan) with no flares, and am now down to 2mg. How slowly do I need to go in my progress to zero?

[PMRpro Ambassador]

As slowly as you got to here - at least. Preferably even slower. This is such a low dose it isn't worth worrying about, you wouldn't be the first to find that 2mg or even 1mg was holding the PMR at bay!

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

As PMRpro says keep it slow.....very slow.

As you are less than 2 years into your journey, you may be one of the lucky ones that gets through easily, but there’s no rush. The dose you are on is very low so causing you no problems, but might be helping you more than you realise!

[HeronNS]

S l o w l y . . . .

i know whereof I speak having got to 1.5 without mishap and then having everything go pearshaped as I attempted to get to zero on slow taper with the pills I had on hand. It took me over two years to get back to 1.5 (just recently) although during the interim I was mostly at about 2.5 so not so bad. And my doctor (the usually sensible woman who suggested she not renew my prescription when I told her I was about to taper to 1, but "use up your pills, stop and see what happens" has been very goo since the inevitable flare of keeping me amply supplied with 1 mg tablets.

[Hidden]

I’m at exactly the same position as you (I am currently halving 2.5mg of tablets) and have just requested some 1mg which I will take for at least a month, then I’m going to try to take a full one every other day and half in between. I next see the rheumy mid October and she asked me to get to 1mg by then which I’m on track for. I’m under 2 years too so I’m hoping that I’m one of the lucky ones who can get rid of it quickly, the fatigue when I reduce comes temporarily but I’ve put that down to withdrawal from the steroids. Good luck xx

[Rokerman]

As others have said - take it slowly! You’ve done very well to reduce to 2mg/day in 22 months - it’s taken me 40 months to get down to 1.5mg/day with no flares, also following DL’s reduction plan (well - sort of, I just make it up as I go along nowadays!)

The bigger worry is: when to trust going down to zero? That’s a leap of faith that I’m just putting off - very low levels of Pred don’t seem too much of an issue - but the time will come....!

[Noosat]

These posts help me a great deal. I have reduced from 20mg to 4mg for last 7 days, during the last 9 months. I still have rusty robot legs in the mornings and sometimes back aches, which may be due to osteo or even exercises at the gym. I have periods of fatigue which I hope are temporary from pred reduction. When they occur in the afternoon, I lie down and either close my eyes and meditate or read for an hour or two