Covid, prednisone, tapering

[Linny3]

I was in the hospital with Covid 19. I was put on massive amounts of steroids (by IV) for pneumonia and lung issues due to covid. I am home now and doing much better. I am now tapering off the steroids. What an ordeal this has been.

I spent the last 4 months reducing the prednisone and was on 13 &1/2 mg and doing pretty good. Down from 16mg.

I am very worried that I won't be able to go back to the 13&1/2 mg. (what a bummer) I was taking 40mg when I came home from the hospital, I am now on 25mg for another 2 days then reduce to 20 mg for 2 days. Historically that would be too big a reduction for me and then they say I could go back to where I left off. I sure hope that is the case. I guess only time will tell. I have been off the methotrexate for 1 month and not sure if that will start again anytime soon.

Wish me luck

[PMRCanada]

Yikes….you have been through SO much!! And that’s quite a rapid, substantial tapering schedule. Not sure I could manage it either.

Seems we are so often in the middle of tapering, overall, then additional things/ailments knock us off course. Listen to your body. It may take some time, and once your settled at a dose, if methotrexate worked for you previously, it may once more help you get back down to where you were.

Thank you for sharing your ongoing challenges, I think we all can learn from reading each others’ experiences on this forum.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Sorry to hear you have been so ill - but glad to hear you got through it. It's a whole new journey now I suppose so I hope it all goes well.

[HeronNS]

My daughter in law's father has PMR. I think at the time he was taking 8 mg. He was in hospital with some life-threatening issue, he has congestive heart failure and this may have been the beginning of it. In any case he was put on a large dose of pred. Once he was on the mend the doctor got him off pred completely, obviously not noticing he had arrived in hospital on 8 mg for a chronic condition. If I remember correctly, once he told them he needed some pred he went back to his 8 mg without issues. I imagine if your 13.5 was enough you will be able to get back there relatively easily. If you need a little more it would be more likely a result of PMR disease activity rather than a taper having been interrupted by treatment for an acute illness. Think positive!

Hope you are feeling much better now.

[Sharitone]

I haven't any words of wisdom to offer, but yes, lots of luck! I hope you can get all the rest you need.

[SheffieldJane]

Good luck - more good luck, you came through! I would want advice about coming off this high dose of steroids. It might be different for people who need long term steroid treatment. I would instinctively want to taper no more than 10% unless firmly, medically, advised to do otherwise. So glad that you are out the other side. Have a lovely restful, Christmas.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to SheffieldJane]

The 10% is really for long term tapering - which isn't quite the same as reducing the dose after relatively short term use. Down to 10mg or the previous dose you can go pretty fast.

[Linny3 in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you for the response. I am hoping that will be the case. So far I am down to 20mg for the next 2 days. After that, I think I will go to 15mg for a few days and see how it goes.

[piglette]

What a nasty thing to happen. I am so sorry. Had you had a vaccine before you went into hospital?

[Linny3 in reply to piglette]

I had two vaccines before being diagnosed but I didn't have the booster

[piglette in reply to Linny3]

I hope the first two vaccines might have helped a bit. It is worrying though.

[Linny3 in reply to piglette]

Maybe it they kept me from being on a ventilator or dying from it. ?

[piglette in reply to Linny3]

I think it is the anti vaxxers who are on the ventilators.