I began this PMR journey at the beginning of March 2023. Started on 15 mgs, then three weeks later 12.5, a month later 11 mgs then 3 weeks later 10 . A few hiccups ie aches, tiredness but now after a month on 10 moved down to 9.5 ( been on that for 10 days) I feel fine and seeing the GP soon. He was happy for me to go down .5 mgs a month. I would be grateful for your thoughts. Should I still just go down by .5 a month?
Love reading all these posts. All so informative
You seem to have done very well reducing. 0.5 a month seems fine. When you get to around 7mg you may find that the adrenals starting to wake up cause sude effects and you may want to slow down. On the other hand you may have non complaining adrenals and sail through!
Think it’s very sensible to continue at 0.5mg from now on…the percentage reduction at each taper gets bigger as you get lower, so can become more difficult and so you are more prone to flare.
Keep doing what you are doing… and as is often said, it’s not slow if it’s working… much better than going too fast and flaring and having to increase meds…
thank you both (piglette and DL for your prompt replies and reassurance .
Will continue slowly and carefully
If it makes you feel better from 10mg I reduced by 0.5mg every 4-14 weeks! I messed about with crumbs of 1mg Pred tablets for a year going from 1mg to zero. Perhaps that was overkill at the end. What slowed me down was my adrenal glands being slow to reactivate after not being needed at all for a couple of years. My first glimpse of that issue was about 7-8mg. Apart from my crumb 12 months, I felt every reduction from the start with aches and tiredness being withdrawal. Low adrenal function just made that much worse. It doesn’t happen to everybody but I’m just saying this so you don’t panic if to feel you are going backwards.
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You can't go too slow! If it works - it ISN'T slow. If you try to rush and overshoot and create a flare you have to go back and in the end it takes longer and you take more pred overall.
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I agree with all the above comments - especially as I've tried to do it too fast and ended up back at the beginning - don't go there - keep it low and slow.
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I started on 15mg and it was nearly 3 years before I reached zero using a slow taper plan and not reducing if I didn't think that I was ready to. But I had a very 'smooth' journey; no flares, no adrenal crises, no fatigue, etc. Slow works!
If it helps, I reduced .5mg every month or longer from 15 down to 10. After I got to ten, I started DSNS. Currently at 7/6mg with no flares. I notice that on the lower dose days, it seems to take a little longer for my morning (very minor) aches to go, but so far DSNS seems to be working great for me. Hope that helps...🤞
I followed the advice of Piglette and PMRpro and others that advised a 10% reduction at a time. At 7-8 mg I too noticed the Adrenals waking up and started the 10% reduction. Which means at 4 mg essentially a 1/4 mg. reduction at a time. Because that is slow I used a 3 week program to integrate the introduction of a lower dose (really a titration of the new lower dose during the 3 week program rather than sudden drop). It is slow but steady and now 2 years I have been 0 and pain free.
Thank you everyone who answered my question about going slow tapering. My doctor is happy for me to follow whichever pattern I want and has now given me prescriptions for .05, 1, and 2.5 tablets.
This group is invaluable going through this PMR journey. While friends and family try to understand the disease I find it therapeutic to read all the posts on this site. I am not alone! 😀
Reducing prednisone
Getting off Prednisone
reducing prednisone and flares
Down to 5 mg of prednisone 
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