Yesterday, I ended 4 long years on prednisolone. 😃
Diagnosed with PMR at 68 years-old, I was soon on a 24 mg split-dose of pred. After 9 months, I was stuck at 7 mg single-dose, even longer at 3 mg, and again at 1 mg. I'm lucky as I have few other health problems, was mostly without pain, and could exercise freely throughout.
I wish to thank forum members who so kindly assisted me and particularly those with vast knowledge and experience. So much so that I only needed a GP for scripts. Thank you HealthUnlocked.
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Joydeck
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Ah ha! Here's where HealthUnlocked and PMRpro shine.
From February, I was stranded for 5 months on 1 mg pred, unsure whether my bilateral shoulder pains were PMR or from excessive walking with hand-weights, during the COVID lock-downs (Melbourne holds the world record for lock-down days). I eventually learnt to use hand-weights more judiciously and my shoulders pains faded away.
Once painlessly below 1 mg, I was acutely aware of the risk of PMR returning at very low pred. So, I tapered cautiously, reducing by 0.1 mg every two weeks without the least pain. At just 0.1 mg pred, I reduced to 0.05 mg for 2 weeks, and to a mere 0.02 mg last week. Ultra cautious, don't you think? 😇
Crumbs? For the past two years, I broke up dozens of 5 mg tablets (10 % pred) and sorted them by weight into a 14-compartment pill box. With a 1 mg precision scale, costing $12, I could weigh down to roughly 0.1 mg of pred. A flexible approach to tapering.
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