I saw my rheumy this week and she prescribed medrol (4mg strength) to replace the prednisone, the reason being that the medrol tablet has 2 crosses making it easier to divide in 1mg than pred (We only get 5mg pred in my country).
Does anybody have experience of medrol?
I do but I'm afraid I didn't get on well with it at all. Previously I had been on prednisolone with no problems at all except the weight I'd put on with untreated PMR redistributed itself to the usual places. I was switched to prednisone and haven't had any trouble with that either. But the 9 months between on Medrol weren't too good!
The methyl bit is meant to make it more antiinflammatory - the only thing that increased for me was weight gain, I grew a lovely black beard and my skin and hair went mad. And to add insult to injury it didn't combat the inflammation/symptoms! It took hours to give any relief - with pred it works in a couple of hours. That all disappeared very quickly once I switched to prednisone in the form of Lodotra/Rayos.
Many people take it and do very well on it - all I'm saying is if you feel it isn't for you (I knew in my heart there was something different from the first week but I couldn't say why) don't let the doctors tell you it is all in your mind!
Thank you PMRpro. The side-effects you describe are definitely not encouraging!
I'm doing well on the pred - the only problem is getting 0.5mg out of a 5mg tablet. It very much becomes a guessing game. I have even resorted to picking up the powder of the crumbled tablet.
In which country do you live?
I live in Cape Town, South Africa. I visited my daughter in the UK recently with a script from my rheumy, hoping that I might be able to bring back some 1mg pred. But at the pharmacist they told me that I must first register with a local gp before I can get the pills. I didn't want to go through the schlepp.
Perhaps you could get them via mail order?
Thank you Daylily, I will investigate that avenue.
If you don't get on well with the Medrol - you could speak to your doctor about the paediatic solution which is 5mg per ml - if you use a syringe you could dispense what you need to make up the dose using 2.5mg from halving a 5mg tablet.
health-e.org.za/medicine-pr...
Thank you PMRpro, I haven't started on the Medrol, not too keen now. Will find out about the paediatric solution.
What is a concern for me with my recent visit to the rheumy, was her remark that almost all of her poly patients are off pred after 6 months, only a "handful" stay on longer than 6 months. I told her about the 2.9 years average and she said that average probably came from late diagnosis. I was diagnosed in Nov 2018 and am now at 6.25mg pred and am trying to stay patient and work through the DSNS tapering.
Thank you for your excellent contributions, greatly appreciated.
Well she's talking rubbish - or it wasn't the same PMR we have! Not 2.9 - 5.9 years and median not average! Have you got the link to the paper about it? They can't all have been late diagnosis ...
medpagetoday.org/rheumatolo...
the link to the primary source is at the bottom:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...
If that is the best she can offer - have you got a sensible GP?
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