would a 2.5 drop be too much?

[Nanatoo]

As reported in an earlier post I did too much leading up to and over Christmas and PMR punished me. The pain and stiffness returned in shoulders and legs and I felt I had completely undone the careful tapering I’d done. I had got down to 10mg after 18 months with a couple of flares.

I went up to 15mg for 10 days and I now feel ready to start a taper again, now I can walk properly again. Would a drop down to12.5 be risky? Then should I reduce by 1mg a month?

I’ve learned my lesson the hard way. It’s lovely to be invited out by family and friends several times a week but the result for me was a reminder just how disabling PMR is.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

If you are confident your flare was due to overdoing things and you are using the flare protocol then in theory you are fine to drop back to the previous dose. So going to 12,5 seems perfectly reasonable.

[Nanatoo in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you PMRpro. Xx

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Nanatoo]

All you can do is try it - if it doesn't work then go back, get settled again and try 1mg at a time. But if the bigger step works - great.

[Bcol]

Hi, I would have thought a drop to 12.5mg would be fine and if it is,then possibly try 11mg then 10mg on a absolute minium of a month at each, make it longer if it feels needed. If it doesn't work work then as pro says go back, reset, and try again with smaller reductions. For me once I'd got to 10mg then 0.5mg reductions (DL taper) every 5 weeks worked well, may seem to the long way round but it worked well for me with no problems on the way.

[Rotsky]

I had to go back to 10 after over exertion and stress of moving. I got down to 8.5 quite easily but stayed on 8.5 for 6 weeks as body telling me ‘that’s it for the time being’. Now slow taper 0.5 monthly. Don’t despair, slow gets us there.

[Nanatoo in reply to Rotsky]

I’m realising that now. I think it’s the constant digging from the GP that makes me try to reduce too quickly, that and not resting enough. I’m really going to listen to my body from now on.