Pain a week after starting taper

[Paulagcl]

I started tapering from 8 mg every other day to 7 about ten days ago and now my shoulder hurts at night and morning. Depressing. It's easy to have the illusion one is getting better when in fact it's the prednisone working.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Id go back to 8mg - get rid of pain and then reduce by only 0.5mg and use a slower tapering plan we are always discussing on here -they seem to work better than the alternate days which many rheumatologist in US favour.

Plus adrenals are thinking about re-awakening .. that often makes everything more difficult…

[Paulagcl in reply to DorsetLady]

Thank you. I was thinking, though, that reducing 1 mg every other day was the equivalent of .5 mg.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to Paulagcl]

Yes it is -but it’s harder on the body than introducing the lower dose in the tapers we suggest… you have more days on the higher dose to start with when you are more likely to flare and then steadily increase the lower dose as the weeks go by.

[Paulagcl in reply to DorsetLady]

I can't figure out the FAQ page, how to find one topic -- like, the very slow taper. I found it once via a post but now can't find either.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

2 plans -suggest you save the post then you can find it again easily

FAQs page isn’t that difficult -it's all listed alphabetically, might be worth having a good look at it one day -you aren’t going to break or delete anything.

[Paulagcl in reply to DorsetLady]

THANKS! You're so helpful! Appreciated! I copied it out into a Word file.

[Sillydogsmum]

One of the big advantages of reducing by 0.5mgs as per DL and others who have been at this longer than me( wot I didnt appreciate at first in my haste to get off the pred) is that one is not launching oneself into the unkown. It is much easier to rescue the situation ( or to sit tight for a while), either because one has reduced too soon or some other thing arrives unexpectedly to aggravate the symptoms. Effectively one has some control over what happens which is so reassuring. Also , for me, avoids the yo-yo of overshooting symptoms and pred dose.

[Paulagcl in reply to Sillydogsmum]

Thank you! I am going to try this slower method starting today. I see that people play around with the dosage without calling their doctor every other minute like I've been doing, waiting for a reply which I may or may not get.

[Paulagcl in reply to Paulagcl]

right now I am better as soon as get out of bed, so I think I'l stay where I am for another week and see how it goes, but then when I reduce, just by 0.5 as some are suggesting.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to Paulagcl]

I suggest you go back to 8mg, get things settled, then try... so in week or two's time.. not today.

[Stargiver]

wow good news😳😳