Alternate Pred taper

[Tom]

Prednisone reduction is getting a lot of press here. I learned from the cardioligist the other day that there is a way that is being used with some success. Its called alternate taper where in my case and others are having trouble tapering. As for me where I started at 60 mg and the every other day either dont take the pred, or every other day, you take 50 and then 60 and at the appropriate time you would reduce 50 to 40 and then taper 40 to 30 on alternate days until you are down to a more reasonable dose. It sounded interesting but would like to have consideration of my internist before doing that. The problem I have with it is that my ruemy will ask me everytime when I tell him Im not feeling well if Im taking the pred and cellcept daily. I say yes and he stresses that I need to make sure I take those with out fail every day. I told the cardio that like my Reumy I want to ensure that I keep control of the wegs. The cardio just said that it was an option he has used and other have too with success. Anyone else ever hear of this. I may go for it if I cant get to breathing better on the 20 which I have been back for a week now but having some difficulty and with breathing and the last few days the knees, ankles and elbows have been aching in the mornings like the year leading up to my wegs dx. However ,to be honest I think the breathing is as good as its going to get and is going to get worse as it is progressive. I have a spiro tommorow, SoI wil get a handle on the lungs then.

[drz]

Prednisone reduction is getting a lot of press here. I learned from the cardioligist the other day that there is a way that is being used with some success. Its called alternate taper where in my case and others are having trouble tapering. As for me where I started at 60 mg and the every other day either dont take the pred, or every other day, you take 50 and then 60 and at the appropriate time you would reduce 50 to 40 and then taper 40 to 30 on alternate days until you are down to a more reasonable dose. It sounded interesting but would like to have consideration of my internist before doing that. The problem I have with it is that my ruemy will ask me everytime when I tell him Im not feeling well if Im taking the pred and cellcept daily. I say yes and he stresses that I need to make sure I take those with out fail every day. I told the cardio that like my Reumy I want to ensure that I keep control of the wegs. The cardio just said that it was an option he has used and other have too with success. Anyone else ever hear of this. I may go for it if I cant get to breathing better on the 20 which I have been back for a week now but having some difficulty and with breathing and the last few days the knees, ankles and elbows have been aching in the mornings like the year leading up to my wegs dx. However ,to be honest I think the breathing is as good as its going to get and is going to get worse as it is progressive. I have a spiro tommorow, SoI wil get a handle on the lungs then.

Some people taper pred by alternating dosages for awhile and then move the higher number to a lower number. Example 60 on odd days, 50 on even days and do this for a week or two and then move to 50 on even days and 40 on odds days and keep going done as you tolerate it. I haven't heard anything yet about skipping whole dosage for a day on regular basis but maybe it is a new way of tapering.

[JeanMarie]

I've also done an alternate day taper, but always with the rheumy's direction. Are you having more symptoms with the taper? You need to be careful, maybe wait until you feel better. The rheumy is the doc to decide along with your input of course.

[andrew]

Yup I echo previous statements. I was tapered on alternate days when I came down from 60mg. Not sure if skipping a dose when taking so much is a good idea though. Perhaps when you're down to single figure doses it could be an option??

[RudiK]

Tom, don't your doctors talk to each other before making a dosage change? My three doctors always talk to each other before either one changes any medicine dosage. I had it ask for it at the beginning and it took some push on my part, but now they do it every time.