Stop Prednisone Early? | Arthritis Information

I've been on 30 mg. of Prednisone to try and determine if it will have any effect on my left sided weakness/pain issues and ringing in my ears. After 5 days on it there's no improvement. Tomorrow I start 25 mg. for 5 days and keep stepping down from there for a total of one month on the med. I'm thinking that since it hasn't helped at all, I should ask the doctor about cutting back more quickly, like every 3 or 4 days, so I'm not taking it as long. Is that something that can be done or do I have to do it exactly as prescribed? I know enough not to stop suddenly or mess with the dosage too much, but I was thinking there's probably some wiggle room. Your advice? Also, since this was also supposed to be a diagnostic tool, I'm thinking that since this didn't work, inflammation is not the problem with my left side. Do you have any ideas or thoughts on that? It will be nearly a month before I see the RD again and I'm really curious as to what this all means. I'm thinking some of you veterans may know about this. Thanks all. Jesse, sorry I dont know about the pred, can I ask, what do they (Dr's) say about the ringing in your ears? My ringing is driving me MAD. I was on Predisone for 5 months. It never touched my pain scenario, which was terrible headaches and systemic muscle pain, everything. But, I felt no pain when about half-way through it, I fell down the stairs and broke two toes. When I broke two more toes on the same foot a few months after getting off the P, the pain was horrendous. So Predisone obviously works on pain, just not the pain I was describing.

I saw my old primary the day before I saw the rheumatologist. The primary said to get off it as soon as possible, doing a wean off of 4 pills for one week (I was on 5), then 3 pills for one week, then 2 pills for one week, then 1 pill for one week, then stop.

The rheumatologist, however, instructed me to do 5, then 2.5 for a week, then back up to 5, then 1.0, then back to 2.5, then .5 then back up to 1.0 - some garbled up mess that was a fast, hard, horrible weanoff to endure - I know now what heroin addicts go through.

The broken toes easily snapping by hitting chairs and things was my first warning I had developed osteoporosis, probably from the predisone.

I will never take it again. CathyWills, the RD thinks the ringing is caused by the disease somehow. He's not really sure and neither was the neurologist or the ENT doctor but they all agreed the Plaquenil was not the cause, even though it's listed as a side effect. There's so much they don't know. I think he's trying to get inflammation down that he hopes will ease up on some pressure that may be causing the ringing. Didn't work, unfortunately and I don't think it's going to get any better now that I'll be dropping down. You should talk to your RD to see if he can try anything for your ringing problem. You may have more luck than me. I understand why it's making you crazy. My left ear has had ringing for years since a virus-induced deafness, but it's worse now, along with the right ear starting. Your situation is probably very different and therefore may be more treatable. Definitely check it out and good luck.

Cathy, your post was very interesting. For the life of me, I can't make sense of your RD's step down instructions. No wonder you were having so much trouble. When I was on pred. once before for an arm injury, it worked well at the high dose but the pain came back as I tapered down. Since it's not helping, I'm like you, I'd rather not take it. The trick is, doing it quickly but safely. Your primary's instructions are very much like mine now, but I'm hoping to step down more quickly if I can. I've never tried to get off faster before so this is new territory for me.

Thank you both for your responses.

I also had bad ringing in the ears. I still do at times, but it's better now. I think the inflammation causes it. Sometimes it was so loud it was the only thing you could hear, so I really understand. And the P never touched it.

My headaches were from the lining of my brain being inflammed - it felt like the durn top of my head was coming off. The P never touched it. But, that is all now mostly gone.

Have you ever had your ears candled? C

Candled? No, what is that? Is it something like getting wax removed?

It sounds like your ringing and headaches are coming from the same basic problem.

BTW, I also had in-utero DES exposure. Has there ever been any kind of link to it and A/I diseases? Anyone?

Jesse - yes, ear candling is wax removal. Very effective.

Yes, there is growing evidence of in-utero DES and autommune. The Centers for Disease Control now has a DES site, that is getting a little more meatier, but still pretty light weight.

The autoimmune part is cropping up as this generation become older, post menopausal for women. And since we make up the bulk of A/I, so that's not a surprise. It's coming down to if you missed dying of the cancer by 30, once you get older, A/I kicks in. Oh joy. And I think your A/I is directly related to how much DES your mother was prescribed and at what point in the pregnancy. The worst part now is that it changed our DNA and it's being passed down to third generations. Not good, especially since it was repackaged as a pre-natal vitamin until 1997.

It never stops. Ear candling feels great too. Cathy

Oh brother. I've been worried about passing this on to my son and/or daughter anyway. I just keep hoping by the time they're my age, this disease will be a thing of the awful past.

About the ear wax, I would have thought the ENT doc would have seen if there was wax in my ears, but I'll ask the PCP to check it out when I have my annual physical in March. Couldn't hurt, right?

I know of ear candling pulling out worms. No MD is going to see that by peering down your ear canal a ways. Sorry about giving you the news about second and third generations, but your kids will need to know about this eventually. I would go to the CDC site and read about it. Somewhere in there it talks about the A/I connection. DES was a Pandora's box, and its still at work. :( I would talk with your doctor if you are having problems. Prednisone is never a good idea to quit cold turkey as it needs to be lowered slowly. You can get off faster if you are short term, but still it make take a few days of lowering.

I have been on prednisone for around 2.5yrs or so. It has been the only thing that works well on me so far. I hope to get off it and have about once every 6 months cuz i have a drug interaction (they don't play well with each other) so i have to stop and then restart.

Worms??!!? Ick!! But wouldn't that be a kick in the head if that's all it was? Can't imagine how they'd get there in the first place, but stranger things have happened.

Yes, I've given a lot of thought about how/if my children will be affected but never made the DES connection at all. Thanks for the reference information. I'll check it out.

Bubba, I will talk to the RD if I decide for sure I want to taper down more quickly, although the advice that JSNM got from her doctor seemed so wierd and caused some problems. I wanted to get some feedback from the experts here before I made my decision as to whether to even call or not. I'm not having any problems, other than a 4 pound weight gain in five days, which is bad enough, but it's just not doing me any good so I'd like to stop this stuff as quickly and safely as possible. I'm glad it's working for you and that you tolerate it well most of the time. Relief from pain is priceless.