I have an adrenal question?

[LisaMarie]

Ok guess I am getting slow in my pred brain.....I am down to 15mg of pred and want to know when my will I know if my adrenals are kicking in? I am soo nervous about this taper ...so any advise would be greatly appreciated.

[Brooke]

I am not sure about that, I bet Sangye will know

[LisaMarie]

Ok Sangye ...where are U ...hope you are feeling well and can help a pred head out...olo

[Jack]

You should not have any problems until you start to go below 5mg of Pred, but you need to taper very slowly from 10mg down. i'm sure you will get plenty of advice on this one so I'll stop there for the moment.

[NicShaf]

I think your body produces the equivalent of 3mg Prednisone per day, so you're still a little ways from that. Hope this helps.

[elephant]

I think I tapered 15 mg to 12 1/2 mg then to 10 mg...every two weeks. Then I tapered down 1 mg every 4 weeks, but that didn't work once I got to 5...then I had to go back to 10 again and decrease by 1/2 mg every 4 weeks. I am now at 4 and holding. I did put myself up to 5mg, then decrease to 4 within a couple of weeks.

[Sangye]

Once you get to 5mg your adrenals may kick in. They might not, or might kick in only a bit. Sometimes you have to sit at 5mg or a little less and let them slowly crank up. You'll be able to tell if your adrenals kick in when you taper below 5mg, because you won't get sleepy in the afternoon and can respond to stress. There's more to it than that, but I just wanted to let you know not to worry about it for awhile.

[LisaMarie]

Thanks guys...this taper is freaking me out...i have been on 40 -60 mg for almost a year with rare stents of 30-20 mg....usuually at 20 mg i start having problems ...upper respiratory and increased joint pain...i am at 15 mg since the 27th and plan on going to 10 mg by 10th of April and stay there til I go back to Mayo...Per Mayo as lon as I do not have B cells I should not flare with WG so some of this may be a reaction to the cellcept I was on ...I did the same thing with Imuran...so I am hope the WG will sleep...My body does not like meds...so I will be a tricky pickle to treat...I am finding my symptoms are worse in the cold weather...and for whatever reason Missouri can not make up its mind on if we are still in winter or starting spring......oh well could be worse
Oh on a side note i see a therapist on Friday to help me deal with all the changes..ie finanacial...physical.etc that the WG dog tends to drag out...Thanks Sangye for the advise....Hopefully it will help me find a better perspective on it all...you know the saying when it rains it pours...
Have a good day

Doing my sleep study tonight..wish me luck

[Sangye]

Glad to hear all that, LisaMarie, and sweet dreams tonight.

[LisaMarie]

Completed my sleep study ...minimal sleep apnea ...not enough to require cpap ...yeah me...gonna keep sleeping on my wedge pillow....and try not to fall off.....so we now know that I am not fatigue from sleep apnea......so WG may be sleeping but it still makes me tired...or maybe it was all those darn drugs...cellcept and imuran.....do not work well for me.....so now I wait to see my pulmy here ....then back to Mayo in May....for anyone who is having a bad day and like Christian music there is a song by Mandisa care HE IS WITH YOU.....it is a tear jerker but fits us WG to the T ..atleast in my case...have a Great day yall