Rheumatologist’s advice query

I had an appointment with a rheumatologist today. I am currently on 1.75mg of prednisolone & he said he wanted to get me off quickly, so to go down to 1mg for amonth, then off completely to see how it goes. I am very unsure that this is the correct way to go. Any advice please?

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Why does he want you off it so quickly? You are on such a low dose it’s unlikely to be having any adverse effect.

I would go to 1mg for a month, then to 0.5mg for another month, then try zero….

Many at this stage use a slower tapering method, I did, no issues.

But I do have to say, that less than 2years on Pred, your illness is still likely to be active, and 1.75mg might be enough to keep it at bay, whereas a smaller dose may not.

[Hidden in reply to DorsetLady]

I agree with you & will taper slowly & reduce month by month. These “experts” don’t seem to have much experience with PMR. I call PMR the poor relation of these types of condition.

[dancersize2]

I took a year to go from 1mg to zero. Tiny steps.

[Hidden in reply to dancersize2]

Thank you. Did you try to reduce & failed or did you just decide to take one year to get to zero?

[Rugger]

My final taper was at 0.5mg/month, so I would have taken 3.5 months to get from where you are to zero.

Best wishes.

[Hidden in reply to Rugger]

Thank you so much. That makes more sense than the rheumatologist who I guess has never had this awful condition.

[Crowsfeet]

I had an odd experience with my reduction of prednisone. When I first had pmr it took two years for me to get off the prednisone. And several months on a very low dose going backwards and forwards trying to reduce to nothing. However when I had pmr 15years later my GP was very keen for me to reduce as fast as possible. I went from 20 to mgms to zero in 5 months! I know from being a member of this forum for such a long time that this is not the way it should be. However that was my experience.

[Hidden in reply to Crowsfeet]

Thank you. That was very interesting. All I know is that we’re all different in our journey. The problem with me at the moment is that if I do taper very quickly, I’ll have a flare, and then have to increase my dose, thus going backwards.

[tangocharlie]

Oh ffs, where do they get these ideas from about rushing off and especially from such a low dose that you've successfully got to? As others have said , in their wise experience it's best to go very slowly

[Hidden in reply to tangocharlie]

Thanks. Yes I agree & will continue to taper slowly & see how it goes.