Prednisone tapering

[Monkey321]

I've been tapering off prednisone which initially was 30 mg daily by 1 mg every 3 days on dr's and rheumatologist advice. (Was diagnosed with PMR then changed to fibromyalgia). I was also taking tumeric supplements which i stopped on saturday. As of today I am on 7 mg. My question is: the last 2 days I've been quite achy and sore and my knees in particular are swollen front and back, i also have moon face. Seeing as i don't have PMR then it can't be that so is it adrenal issues kicking back in? Thanks

[piglette]

Have you tried painkillers? If so did they work? Some of the symptoms could be steroid withdrawal too. If the painkillers don't work it may be that you do have PMR and you have dropped too quickly. Did the pred ever work? Pred does not help fibromyalgia, while painkillers tend not to help PMR.

[Monkey321 in reply to piglette]

Thank you Piglette, yes, panadol helps with the pain and a hot water bottle helps too. The initial 30 mg took the edge off the shoulder pain but it came back. The prednisone hss never really helped which was why the Dr wanted me to taper off. I got 2 cortisone shots into both my shoulder muscles 2 wks ago which has taken shoulder pain away (bursitis). The rheumatologist diagnosed fibromyalgia which prednisone doesn't help with.

[piglette in reply to Monkey321]

So it does sound like it is fibromyalgia and not PMR as painkillers work and steroids don’t. Steroids do help things like arthritis at higher doses. It could be arthritis in your shoulder of course. As PMRPro says it may be worth slowing down a bit, as 1mg is now a much larger percentage of your dose than it was at 30mg!

[PMRnewbie2017]

When did you start taking 30mg Pred?

[Monkey321]

Approx 4.5-5 months ago as Dr initially thought PMR. I tapered to 19 but pains increased so he upped back to 30. After a check up when I told him prednisone wasn't helping he referred me to rheumatologist and did more bloods etc. I'm still waiting for a HLA-B27 result. He was then thinking some spondylitis condition but rheumatologist thinks fibromyalgia.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

On what grounds are they so sure it is fibro rather than PMR? And you can have both. I will grant you plain PMR is not that likely though if panadol works. But pred also works for other forms of inflammatory rheumatological disease and at some point there is likely to be a flare of symptoms.

After only 5 months you shouldn't have too much trouble with adrenal reluctance - the time you have been on pred is very relevant. However, I think it is time to slow down, 1mg every 3 days is very fast and your body probably feels a bit confused with the constant changes. If you want/need to reduce quickly I think 5mg every 2 weeks is less agonising and gets to the same place in the same time. But from 5mg - definitely slower.

[Monkey321 in reply to PMRpro]

Hi, the rheumatologist is of the view "I'm too young for PMR". After confirming the hip and shoulder bursitis issues which he said are "mechanical" he examined me and essentially everywhere he touched was sore so said "fibromyalgia". Both he and Dr (and me) want to off prednisone as it's pointless being on it now as not helping. Dr gave me "celebrex" which are anti inflammatory pills which he said to start when down to 5 mg. Thank uou.