Struggling to get past 8 mg

[DJmusic]

I was prescribed 20 mg of steroid in January I’ve managed very slowly lowering by one mil a month to get to 8 mg as soon as I lower the 7 mg the pain starts coming back back shoulders hips Hands and left knee,if I go back up to 8 mg everything settles down I have tried alternating so my question is how long should I stay at 8mg because there is no pain at 8 mg Or should I just keep alternating between 7 mg and 8 mg I am At work normally maybe I’m just trying to fast? Thanks

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

I am At work normally maybe I’m just trying to fast?

Hit it on the head i would say... and now you've got to the level where adrenals need to come back into play...

I would stay at 8mg for a few weeks just to get back on an even keel - and then maybe try one of the tapering plans - see below - and only 0.5mg a time from now on. You've gone very quickly despite you thinking it's slow..until now, so you do need to Slow Down....

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

also info on adrenals -

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

It's not a race to get to zero, it's finding the lowest dose that controls your symptoms on any given day, you have overshot that for the moment.....so ease back a bit.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

As long as it takes.

You are never reducing relentlessly to zero. You start at a dose that is felt to be plenty to control the inflammation and clear the accumulated inflammation out. Then tyou taper the dose slowly to find the lowest effective dose that gives the same level of pain and symptom relief the starting dose did. The process is called titration and is to identify YOUR personal dose. It may well be you have reached that for the present - it doesn't mean you won't get lower, just not yet PMR lasts a long time - about 1 in 5 manage to get off pred altogether in a year but most of us need it longer. Sometimes a lot longer but there is no way of predicting whether you are going to need more or less time unfortunately. And people who have to work often need a bit more.

But getting to 8mg since January is pretty good going really

[DJmusic in reply to PMRpro]

Thank I will stay at 8 and the in 4 weeks try 7.5

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to DJmusic]

I often say leave it a couple of months and try again - often works at the 3rd time of aksing

[piglette]

If you get any PMR pains STOP and go back to 8mg. Have you thought of reducing by 0.5mg instead of 1mg at that dose?

[Meggsy]

You have done very well to get to 8mg since January. I took 14 months to go from 25 to 8mg and another 3 years to get to my present 1.5mg. Maybe change to 0.5 reductions from now on. The lower you go the slower you go. All the best 🌻