pain with prednisone taper | Arthritis Information

So I still don't have an offical diagnosis yet, but my RD decided to taper me off the prednisone. I think he wants to see what happens so he can decide what to do next. Anyway, I've been on 5mg prednisone since April 1 of this year. 3 weeks or so ago he wanted me to alternate a whole pill with a half pill everyday. That was going pretty well. Only slight swelling in fingers and pain off and on again. So the new plan is 1/2 pills everyday for 2 weeks and after that 1/2 pill every other day for 2 weeks then stop.

I've been on 1/2 pills for almost a week and my fingers are getting really achey and weak feeling and now my elbow aches...(it feels like I've been hammering nails for hours- really sore and tired) and it hurts when I move it.

So, is this a normal thing when tapering off prednisone???? I'm hoping these aches and pains will go away in a few days, and not get worse when I taper more......

The doc. said to call him if I start to swell up...didn't day anything about pain.

so, what do you guys think????

Hello,

Yes, it is normal for the symptoms to return when weening off.

I am down to my normal dose of 10mg was on a flare taper of pred. and today my fingers are swelled cannot touch my fingers to the palm of my hand, both knees are swelled and I have much more aches & pains now, compared to when I was on the flare taper, which is you take 6 5mg pills for 3 days, and then every 3 days drop 5mgs, until back to your normal dose.

If the pain gets worese you might want to call your RD.

I started tappering off Prednisone last month. I was down to 5mg I am now tapering off 1mg a month. With this drug you can get a bad flare if you taper to fast. I was on 10mg as of 12/07 I started taking 5mg in April and decided I need to get off this med it's making me FAT!!!!Thats the part I don't understand....."tapering off too fast can cause a bad flare". Since we don't really know if I have RA and now things are starting to hurt as I taper off does that mean that theres a good possibility of me having it??? Or can joints hurt as you taper off if you don't have RA.....I mean is pain and swelling a side effect of tapering off pred. or just one if you have RA??? Does that make sense????I don't know if it's an indicator of whether or not you have RA. Something's causing your joints to ache and prednisone helps that.

I have been tapering since February. I was on 40 and I am now down to 4. I find that a few days after I drop I begin to get extra achy. Then usually within a wek or so I am back to as I was. If I'm not- I hold off on tapering further til I feel OK. I am allowed 1 mg every 2 to 4 weeks now. It was two weeks since my last taper on Monday but I did not feel ready.

Also- at 40 I felt terrific! At 12 I saw a dramatic difference in how I felt. Not so great but not terrible. Certainly not onset pain levels....