Prednisone taper

[Sangye]

I just don't know. Maybe others who've been on mtx can help? My main concern is that you're having to figure out which drugs and which doses. There's no way you can do that.

Tapering is going okay. I was really concerned a few days ago with the major jabs of pain I was getting. But I've stayed at 3 mg and they've disappeared. The past few days I was also feeling very arthritic in many joints. Not Wegs joint pain, but like my joints were 90 yrs old. That's eased up, too. I'm heading for 2.75 mg starting tomorrow. My Wegs dx anniversary (4 yrs) is June 26. I'm determined to celebrate it by being off pred.

[elephant]

Hi Col, I am glad you are taking control of your health and getting a Wegeners specialist. It is vital. I know methotrexate causes nausea. I think 25 mg of methotrexate is a good amount. If your lab work is not good or if you are having WG symptoms then you need a different medicine. So that is why it is so important to have a Wegeners specialist so that they can decipher all this. I am gald you are feeling better. Thanks for sharing.

[JanW]

What does of mtx did you start on, Col? Did you eventually go up to 25 after being at 10,15,20?

I don't think anyone but your rheumy reviewing your case can comment on the pred though. Mine is extremely conservative and said that he wouldn't use unless/until something radically changed in my case. I remember when I first came on this boards it seemed like everyone did both steroids and immunosuppressants, and I think that is still true for the vast majority of cases...but I have been heartened by people now saying that their docs are taking the risk of pred very seriously. Sometimes, if you are not flaring seriously, or getting rapidly worse, it's ok to let the immunosuppressants do their work, which of course goes much more slowly than it does with pred, but likely with less downside risk.