Sudden nasty flare at 5mg for 6 weeks.

[waltztherapy]

I have tapered very slowly to 5mg prednisolone, was comfortable for 6 weeks, now horrible pain and stiffness started about a week ago. Felt ok to stay on 5mg for at least two/three months before next slow taper, but this pain and stiffness is quite hard to handle. Please, what should I do? Paracetamol is a minor help. Raising to 1mg for one day did help, should I continue this 1mg raise for a week? Grateful for any advice on how best to proceed.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Probably better to treat as per the flare protocol described in this link - sometimes a very small increase of 1mg will help, but not always - and then it just gets worse -

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

And maybe back down to 5.5mg -as 5mg is obviously not quite enough. Uncoated tablets can be cut with a pill cutter.

[waltztherapy in reply to DorsetLady]

Thank you so much for your good advice Dorset lady.It's such a comfort to have you and your colleagues to turn to when not sure how to handle this disease and it's scary surprises. X

[PMRpro Ambassador]

As DL says - typical effect of the 5mg being marginally too low to manage all the daily inflammation and it has built up enough to feel again. Flare protocol and go back to 5,5mg and see how you go.

[waltztherapy in reply to PMRpro]

Aw thanks PMRpro.This is so helpful in understanding how to handle these horrid flares, and to understand why this happens. Many thanks both, for the reassurance. X