Stop Prednisone Cold Turkey???? | Arthritis Information
I asked the RD if I could taper down off the prednisone since it wasn't helping. He said I could stop immediately....no taper needed. That has me a little concerned. I was on 30 mgs. for 5 days and 25 for 4 days. I'm worried if I don't take anything at all tomorrow, I'm going to have a very hard time. According to the doctor's training it may be acceptable, but have any of you actually done this? It may not kill me, but could be very unpleasant. I know one of you (sorry, can't remember who...brain fog) was given a weird step down that made you sick. I'm trying to avoid trouble. I'd like to know what experiences you've had with stopping prednisone before the end of the cycle. Thanks everyone. Jesse, I've read that that's not good to do. Maybe that's just if you're on it long term. Do you want to just stop it? If yes and the doc says yes, I guess their's no reason you shouldn't. But I don't have much experience with pred so probably this whole post is worthless. Sorry to waste your time.Linncn, thanks for your post...not a waste of my time at all. I need to hear others' thoughts on it, regardless. It helps me to make the decisions I need after hearing different opinions. I've also read it's not good to stop quickly, but I also wonder if that's just for long term users. I'm trying to be really careful about this. Well, if you're concerned, why don't you just taper? That way you won't worry about it. Unless you have some reason you want to be off NOW, who cares if it takes a little longer? The peace of mind is worth it.I will do that if I get scary answers here. I would prefer to stop ASAP since I'm having a terrible time sleeping at night. I'm totally wired. But I wonder if tapering requires a certain routine. I'm not explaining this very well, am I? Like, is it all or nothing? OK to stop cold turkey but if you're not stopping cold, you'd better do it a certain way? I don't know why it should be a problem, but who knows about these crazy drugs. I have a healthy respect (fear?) of prednisone. Jesse88,
This was on About.com
Well, Jesse. Their's some advice you can use! Thanks, KBJESSE
I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH, DO NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT STOP COLD TURKEY!!!!!!
While I know you are not on as much as Justin was, but I am going to tell you his story, so that you DON'T do what we did!!
He was in the hospital for a week and a half for pancreatits(sp???) They had him on 150mg a day. On discharge, they gave him a medrol pack (6 pills one day, 5 the next, then 4 etc etc)
For those 5 days, I seriously did not know what was wrong with him, and a couple of times I thought he just might die. He had loss of vision, he fell over many times, he would forget entire conversations. He had horrible headaches that kept him from sleeping longer than 30-40 minutes at a time. He would wake up drenched in sweat, and SCREAMING bloody murder from nightmares. He lost vision in one eye, and it drifted to the side, and stayed there.
NO ONE knew what was wrong with him. The last straw, was when he was sitting on the couch, talking to me like no big deal, and WHAM. Passed out cold. I had to call 911, and an hour and a half later he was finally up and awake. He had no idea what happened, why he was in the hospital, nothing. They said they couldn't find anything wrong with him.
So I started looking up his symptoms. Eventually I found ALL OF THEM on the "severe withdrawl" list for predisone.
So please, while I know his case was extreme, even the headaches and nightmares are more common and those ALONE are terrifing and horrible. I wouldn't wish that on my WORST enemy. Please please taper!!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! This is exactly what I was afraid of and what I needed to know. It's not easy for me to disregard what my doctor tells me, even if I believe otherwise. That's why it's so, so great to be able to get information from people who have "walked the walk." The "three day rule" was a very interesting part of your post, kweenb and good information. I'll use it as my jump-off point for additional research.
Katie, what a nightmare!!! Poor Justin. Poor you You both must have been terrified! Extreme or not, I'm taking your advice very seriously.
Again, thank you board buddies. You have probably saved me a very unpleasant few days. I'm going to do some more research to try and determine the right way to taper.
Anytime! I'm certianly not trying to scare you, and I'm sure even if you did have a reaction, it would be nothing like Justin's. But STILL. It's just not worth it, ya know? Everyone's body is different, and the 150mg it took him to feel that way, it may only take 20mg to do to you, or me, or anyone. It's just so hard to say what your "limit" is, so it's better to be safe than sorry!!Absolutely. I tapered from 35 mg. to 2mg. and went into adrenal crisis, it's not pretty and amazingly scary. I was a long time Pred. user but when you take Pred. for longer than 3 days you're adrenals slow down and don't produce. If you stop cold turkey you're adrenals go "what the hell" happened here, they may be sluggish and can't start right up and that's when the crisis sets in. Taper, please.
Sounds like your doctor is frustrated. Jesse,
If you have only been on Pred for 8 days, you are probably o.k. to stop cold turkey. With that said, you should do what you feel comfortable with. The bigger questions is....do you trust your RD? If not, maybe it is time to look for another one?
Phats[QUOTE=LinB]I was a long time Pred. user but when you take Pred. for longer than 3 days you're adrenals slow down and don't produce. If you stop cold turkey you're adrenals go "what the hell" happened here, they may be sluggish and can't start right up and that's when the crisis sets in. Taper, please.[/QUOTE]
Lin, I've just been reading up on the tapering part and learned something very similar to your quote which confirms the "3 day rule." I also read that doctors have different ideas of how to taper and if, apparently there's no hard and fast rule, but have they ever asked the patient what it was like? The more I'm learning the more I wonder what he's thinking. Maybe JSNM is right and he's frustrated. So he's trying to punish me?????
Phats, you make a good point. Unfortunately, living in a rural area, my doctor options are limited, but this is just the most recent of a few issues I'm having with my RD. He's really good in some ways but.........
For now, I think I can stick with him as long as I have my board buddies to fine tune his treatment regimen. I'm very well aware that I'm not talking to professionals here, and I always take that into consideration when making my decisions, but I've gotten very, very good information here so far, and I have a lot of respect for the veterans here. Thanks to each of you. This one was a biggie.
That's the thing you'll find about tapering. It's soooooooooooooo very very individualistic. One person can take 10mg for 10 days, and have to taper 2.5 mg at a time before they can wean off all the way. While their next door neighbor can take 20mg for 20 days, and then pop down to 10mg for 5 days, and 5 mg for 3 days, and then just stop. And never even blink while doing it.
But you'll probably never hear of someone taping slowly and having a bad reaction from it. KIWM? Again, it's that "better safe than sorry" moto!
I took 10mg for one week and doc told me to stop cold turkey...wasn't fun. I felt like I got hit by a truck. Everything hurt, my bones, skin, scalp, you name it. It lasted for a couple of days. I didn't end up with any long term problems, but I learned the hard way not to stop cold turkey. JMO...Yes, Katie, I'll bet that's true. I've been on the web trying to determine the best way to do this and I think I'm going to try four pills for three days, then three for three days, etc. Three day duration was recommended on one site and makes sense to me. I'll see how that goes. It's got to be better than cold turkey.
Deb, you weren't on very long at all and were at a pretty low dose. Still, cold turkey was a problem for you. Amazing. Thanks for your input. Each post convinces me more I'm not going to go cold turkey. I hope the RD doesn't ask me how I did on his advice. I'm not sure I have the guts to tell him I blew it off.
I have been on pednisone in short burst for asthma and have had to taper every time. was told it could be dangerous if i didnt taper.Back in 2001 I was put on Arava and 5mg of pred. I didn't really like my RD at the time and was more of a bother to make the hour trip to her than it was benefiting me (well in my denial thought process).
So.... I stopped going to her and then after I finished off the meds left over... I just stopped taking them. No, tapering or anything. Just cold turkey. I have been on 5mg of pred for year and a half and just stopped taking it.
I did not feel any different when I stopped the pred without tapering off.
Now, I am back on the pred and have been for over 3 years. I can tell when it is starting to wear off. I can tell when I have forgotten to take the pred. I can't really tell when I forget to take my other meds, like I can with the pred. My body seems to be dependant on it.
I so badly want to taper off the pred, but I seem to still need it.
I hope you can get off the pred and not have to go back on it, except for flares.
Best of Luck!
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