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Thread: Reducing prednisone

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    Default Reducing prednisone

    Alittle about me..when I got out of the hospital back in may they dropped my pred. to 80 mg. Since then I have dropped 10 mg a month till I got to 20 mg then my rheumy slowed the decrease to 2.5 mg at a time. I am currently on 12.5 mg and feel horrible. Joint pain, tired keep hoping it gets better, but these last two weeks have been horrible. Is this normal for pred. Withdraw or after two weeks should it have ironed itself out?

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    Your weaning process has probably been too fast. I was at 100mg in hospital, and took around 3 years to wean effectively and finally including a few failures at weaning. Withdrawal from pred usually isn't a big deal, but getting off it is for many of us. If you're still feeling pain/soreness, etc., then your pred is too low and the wean has been too fast. Is your doc experienced or reading this out of a book? Best to you.
    Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who only know what to think. -NdT


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    Quote Originally Posted by sbeach78 View Post
    Alittle about me..when I got out of the hospital back in may they dropped my pred. to 80 mg. Since then I have dropped 10 mg a month till I got to 20 mg then my rheumy slowed the decrease to 2.5 mg at a time. I am currently on 12.5 mg and feel horrible. Joint pain, tired keep hoping it gets better, but these last two weeks have been horrible. Is this normal for pred. Withdraw or after two weeks should it have ironed itself out?

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    Hang in there. When I went from 10 to 7.5 I started feeling terrible - legs, shoulders and ankle. At that point my docs slowed the taper by 1mg every two weeks - some even recommend tapering 1mg/month. Now I'm down to 1mg (2 weeks to go!). My doc gave me a prescription for physical therapy, and that has helped a lot. Still, my legs get all stiff after sitting for a while and my knees hurt going up and down stairs. The docs say the pain will eventually go away once the body starts producing enough cortisol on its own. Maybe a few months?

    Just be careful exercising. Prednisone weakens muscles and tendons - so joint pain and tendonitis are common.

    Oh, and also the old aches and pains we'd forgotten about will start reappearing - darn it!

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    Yes, I think by 2 weeks you should be over the initial side effects of reducing pred. I would increase again to 15mg. If the symptoms go away I would stsy there for a week. maybe 2 and try again Perhaps even reduce slower next time I believe 1mg tabs are available in the US. If at 15mg you are still having symptoms after a few days it could mean you are flaring and it is time to contact the doctor.

    Rose

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    When I was reducing Pred, i did get some of the side effects you're describing. But after about 3 days, they subsided and I felt "normal" again (normal for being on Pred, that is.). Two weeks seems like a long time for your body to adjust to the new Pred dose. Hope they get it ironed out for you.
    Nicole

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    Quote Originally Posted by sbeach78 View Post
    Alittle about me..when I got out of the hospital back in may they dropped my pred. to 80 mg. Since then I have dropped 10 mg a month till I got to 20 mg then my rheumy slowed the decrease to 2.5 mg at a time. I am currently on 12.5 mg and feel horrible. Joint pain, tired keep hoping it gets better, but these last two weeks have been horrible. Is this normal for pred. Withdraw or after two weeks should it have ironed itself out?
    I agree with everyone else. My final taper was pure agony. Although the withdrawal symptoms are gone, I'm now dealing with the weakness in my legs due to the muscle loss of being on the pred for almost three years. It is very frustrating for me because my legs were always the strongest part of my anatomy. So not being able to do the things I used to do is very, very, very agonizingly frustrating.
    MikeG-2012

    "You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have"


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    I am currently tapering pred and experiencing the same thing. A light pain that started in my left groin before the taper has gotten much worse and I have pain in my left hip area. Sometimes the whole leg hurts down to the knee. I am also currently doing physical therapy. Some days very little pain - some days terrible pain. Today is a bad day and I've had to take tramadol every 4 hours to help. I am currently at 5 mg pred (nothing else) and I'm supposed to do 5 mg every other day in another week. I'm a little concerned and don't see my doc until Jan. I will call if things get worse.

    Karen
    Karen; dx'ed April 2014

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