How fast can you taper prednisone after increasing it to calm vaccine affects? I have been using dsns to get to 7 mg and added 2 back in.

[Blurry62]

I needed to add some pred back in to my life because the overwhelming fatigue, pain, and breathing issues were miserably keeping me in bed.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Depends on how long you were at the higher dose. Up to 10 days you can just drop straight back. But with only 2mg you could do 1mg each time a few days apart. It depends on you too - you might notice it but it not be any worse than the vaccine feelings and they'd be gone in a day or two.

[Blurry62 in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks

[HeronNS]

How long have you been at this higher dose? If only a few days or a week or so you can probably drop down really quickly. If longer you will probably have to taper. And don't taper at all unless you are back to the place you were before the vaccine reaction.

[Blurry62 in reply to HeronNS]

I added the 3 mg two days ago. So, how do I know if it's been long enough to get past the crummy side effects without dropping the dose and seeing how I feel?

On my first dose I was terrible I'll for 16 days starting on day. 7 post vaccine.

[HeronNS in reply to Blurry62]

I'm not the best person for advice. I was at 5 at vaccine time. Should have been a little more but I wanted to encourage good immune response. Three days later I had to take 10. This is about four weeks ago. I am now taking 6 in a split dose, and feel this is barely enough. I had tapered down to 6.5 and have been taking that dose for over a week. Thing is, I know I was flaring before the shot, and it's probably the flare hanging on now. But I did need that larger dose after the shot, I could hardly move.

On the other hand, if I were you and had only increased because of the vaccine side effects I wouldn't stay at a higher dose very long. The pred will be having a damping effect on your immune response. The flare is a confounding issue for me. You can but try. Mostly vaccine side effects don't last very long, a "few days" is what they say - I think probably maximum 7 days. My husband had a severe reaction to his second Shingrix shot and felt like death warmed over, enough to discourage me from getting the vaccine once I'd been tested for chicken pox immunity, but in about two and a half days he was fine. Mind you, he doesn't have PMR!

[piglette]

It sounds like you may have hit the dose when your adrenal glands start leaping into action again. Or not leaping as the case may be!!

[Telian]

Depends how long you’ve been on your previous dose and how long since you upped your current dose. If it’s less than a week or so you should be able to come straight back down. Depends how you feel. I only upped by 1mg following reaction to 2nd jab. I suffer bad withdrawals normally so only reduce by .5mg. I’m back to my previous dose now but it’s taken nearly three weeks. Listen to your body, take it slowly and you’ll get there.

[Blurry62]

okayI am generally very sensitive and have had to drop by .5 as well. Before the 2nd jab, i had settled into 7mg after unsuccessfully trying to taper to 6.5 mg ( my adrenals aren't working well enough yet)

I dropped from 9 (4 days)to 8mg today and although I feel more tired and have a runny nose, I am okay.

It is really crazy trying to sort out covid vaccination symptoms from taper issues from possible flares. It's a trip.