Prednisone Tapering

[RaisinBran]

I have been tapering using the DS method for 6 months. I am now tapering from 2mg to 1 1/2. In two days I will be @ 1 1/2 for seven days, then 1, back to 1 1/2 for 6 days and so on. While I am not in any muscle pain I am extremely fatigued. Does being extremely fatigued means I am having a flare -up of my PMR? Which is a better sign of a flare-up-Fatigue or muscle and joint pain? Should I level off for awhile, go back up to 2mg or continue my tapering because the only symptom I have is extreme fatigue. Thank you and I thank all of you for all the excellent assistance!!!!

[SnazzyD]

Hello, you said you feel fatigued at 3mg as well and I suspect the issue is likely the same as suggested then, you adrenally function hasn’t yet caught up. It is common to feel wiped out if your function isn’t up to par and it can be intermittent with good days and rubbish ones. When it does catch up, you just get on with your day without giving it a second thought.

Have a read of this about adrenal function and Pred.

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Agree with SnazzyD and she attached link to adrenals .

[piglette]

The Deathly Fatigue from the adrenals has caught up with you!! I just gave in to it! As you are on a pretty low dose things should improve soon.

[TheMoaningViolet]

As others have said, this is more likely to be the issue with the adrenal function, and you may want to slow the taper down a little to allow your adrenals time to catch up. So, you could start repeating some steps. I found that once I got down to 3 days on higher dose ad 1 on the lower one, I needed to repeat this several times. Once I felt fine with it, I took the next step (and repeated it, etc.). At your very low dose, you have the luxury of giving yourself more time.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

If you were fatigued at 3mg - and it was adrenal function lagging behind the pred dose, reducing further is likely to make the fatigue even worse since the oral pred is a replacement medication for adrenal insufficiency.

You are at a low enough dose to encourage the adrenal function to start to wake up - and the only way to get it to wake up is to take a low enough dose of pred to do the job. If you are able to function enough at this level that is good - achieving a balance for both aspects is the hard part.