Tapering well so far.

[Merryfield]

Down to 8 mgs methylpred. No probs so far. Going down to 6 tomorrow. I realize that this is more of a drop than recommended. I can raise and use both arms and hips haven’t frozen. Can sleep. Also, good news on queasiness from diabetes meds. Changed to Mounjaro from Ozempic. Queasiness less. For those suffering from Ozempic nausea, maybe switching could help. Unfortunately, despite a new regime of weight-training, my muscle is wasting. Of the 27 lbs I have lost, only 11 are from fat. So a tip to diabetes patients — weight training essential. Thank you all.

[Grammy80]

Sounds like good news on all fronts....remember, the tortoise wins the race. I'm at two mg finally but will only be dropping .5 mg per month from here forward.💞

[Merryfield in reply to Grammy80]

So far so good on steroid reduction. Next time I see doc will ask for sed rate test to check for inflammation. A1c is now below 7, thank goodness.

[Grammy80 in reply to Merryfield]

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼💞

[Bcol]

Good news so far, but just wondering why you are possibly risking the good work so far by going for such a big reduction? Trying to rush this illness rarely works out well.

[Merryfield in reply to Bcol]

Cutting the little steroid pills is a challenge.

[SnazzyD]

It’s great that the wretched nausea issue has been much reduced. Nausea is grim!

From my own experience I think much of the ‘ damage’ is done on higher doses and there is a lag time, but we spend our time blaming the Pred low dose we’re currently on. This can lead to wanting to rush down the ladder; zero seems sooo close. My own muscle wasting didn’t respond to attempts to bulk but instead came back in their own sweet time many months after stopping. Before then I was dogged by tendon issues if I tried too hard. Keep an eye for this but hopefully you’ll be fine. It may be that the very low carb diet I had to stick to may have caused some catabolism of my muscle but I felt for me that not becoming diabetic was more important as well as keeping oestrogen producing fat low which is a health necessity for me. As I have been able to add in some carbs (sadly not many still) my muscle bulk seems to have followed suit. It’s swings and roundabouts. How were you able to tell the proportions of fat and muscle of your weight loss? Some fancy doohicky at the gym?

One thing to bear in mind with jumps at low doses is that your adrenal glands need to up their production of cortisol. 8-6mg is 25% extra production required. If you’re lucky they will seamlessly keep up with your schedule, it certainly does happen for some. If not, you might get some weakness, nausea (!) and fatigue. It just means that you have to slow down to let your adrenal axis catch up, possibly doing 0.5mg drops.

[Merryfield in reply to SnazzyD]

Doc has machine that shows body measurements/weight/muscle/fat/BMI. Similar to what local Uni health care weight prog had. He told me to quit Mounjaro due to imbalance between muscle/fat weight loss. I am still minimizing carbs, etc. Am hoping bruising and other ugly steroid symptoms dissipate after more steroid reduction.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Below 10mg it is advisable to reduce by only 1mg at a time. You are not recovered - you are getting closer to the aim: the lowest effective dose. You can easily overshoot and you body finds it harder to adjust to big steps.

[Merryfield in reply to PMRpro]

Greetings…now down to 6 mgs methylpred. Still have good flexibility. Only doing light weights and more isometrics. So far no frozen or non-working shoulders or pelvic girdle. Hope you are feeling. ok.